The Machine
by Marsdog
Summary: After an attack on the 501st Joint Fighter Wings base they are transported to a world in ruin where everything is trying to kill them. Can they make it home alive? Their only hope is the mysterious Brotherhood of Steel but as their war with the Enclave escalating will they even be able to help the witches.
1. The Assault

**501st Joint Fighter Wing Base Britannia**

**Lynette Bishop "Lynne" P.O.V**

* * *

The warm morning air blows across the base. It brings the sweet scent of the flowers with it as the breeze enters the base through open windows. Lynne was awake and siting at her desk writing a letter home to her family. Smelling the flowery air being blown into her room she is completely at ease with the world. As she finishes her letter she looks over to see her sleeping roommate resting peacefully as the sun starts to rise. Yoshika's face was so beautiful epically when she slept, her skin looked so smooth and her eyes, her eyes were always a lovely brown. Her personality was also amazing as she would never give up and always saw the good in people no matter how evil they are. Lynne finds she can't take her eyes off of Yoshika's sleeping face and spends the next couple of minutes staring at it until Yoshika started to stir and wake up.

"Good morning Yoshika" Lynne says as her friend gets up and rubs her eyes.

"Morning Lynne" Yoshika replies as she yawns. Yoshika was always slow to get up in the morning and today was no different. She sat on her bed for few minutes stretching and yawning as she tried to fight the urge to go back sleep. "Why are you up so early?" Yoshika finally asks as she gets out of bed.

"Oh I had a few letters to write" Lynne replies as she stares at Yoshika's naked body. Last night was blisteringly hot so both Lynne and Yoshika ended up sleeping naked. She feels ashamed of the thoughts that are entering her mind right now, she tries to block out the thoughts but they are powerful and persistent. She feels and overwhelming urge to rush of and caress every inch of Yoshika's skin, in the bath and last night she struggled to hold her hands back away from her friends flesh.

"Who did you write to?" Yoshika asks as she puts on a swimsuit that Fuso girls wear for some reason, much to Lynne's disappointment who secretly wishes Yoshika would have stayed naked for just a bit longer.

"Just back home to my family" Lynne cheerfully responds as she seals the letter in an envelope.

"That's nice I'm sure they will be glad to hear from you" Yoshika replies as she walks up to Lynne and grabs her arm. "Come on we have breakfast to make"

"Sure let's go" Lynne smiles as she lets Yoshika drag her out of the room, she loves the feeling she gets whenever Yoshika touches her. They walk through the halls of the base towards the kitchen looking out over the Britannia coast with the cool coastal breeze refreshing their hot sweaty skin. The day has only just begun but already it was boiling hot, Yoshika and Lynne are beginning to sweat uncontrollably. "It sure is hot today" Lynne says as she wipes her forehead clear of sweat. "I hope it doesn't stay like this all summer"

"Yeah I've never sweated so much in my life" Yoshika replies as they enter the kitchen. "I don't think we should make anything hot for breakfast"

"Good idea" Lynne says as she gets a glass of water. "Do you want a drink?"

"Yes please" Yoshika nods as watches Lynne pour herself a glass of cool clear water.

"So what are we making for breakfast then?" Lynne asks as she hands Yoshika a glass of water.

"I think we should just make sushi" Yoshika suggests.

"Sounds great" Lynne replies staring at Yoshika's lips as she drinks.

* * *

**Mio Sakamoto P.O.V**

* * *

Sakamoto has been practicing her sword swings in the court yard since dawn with Minna watching and encouraging her, she always gets up early and homes her swordsmanship. She normally works up a good sweat when she trains but with the heart wave that is currently affecting the south coast of Britannia she's literally standing in a puddle of her own sweat. Minna is standing nearby holding a towel and a bottle of water for the Major when she stops with a look of concern on her face which Sakamoto thinks is miss placed.

"Dam this heat; I can only get half my training done" Sakamoto curses under her breath but not quite enough for Minna to not hear. She falls to her knees panting and sweating, the only thing stopping her from completely falling to the ground is her sword which she digs into the ground.

"Calm yourself Major you'll only end up with heat stroke if you get worked up" Minna says as she walks up to her friend offering her the towel and water she was holding. "Come on I spotted Yoshika and Lynne heading to the kitchen so breakfast will be ready soon"

"Good I'm starving" Sakamoto replies as she gets up and with Minna starts to head inside.

* * *

**Perrine H. Clostermann P.O.V**

* * *

Perrine was in her room overlooking the courtyard watching Major Sakamoto train, she chose this room just for this view. She has been watching her train every morning since she first met the Major, Perrine was feeling the heat just as much of everybody else and is forced to watch her beloved major wearing nothing but her underwear. Her room was dark so no one would spot her spying on the major. She so wishes to be closer to her beloved major, she gets so jealous of Yoshika who the major seems to spend too much time with in her opinion.

"Why does Major Sakamoto like that stupid raccoon dog more than me? What does she have that I don't?" Perrine quietly says to herself as she watches the major and commander walk inside towards the dining hall. "Major, don't be drawn in so easily by that country pumpkins food. I can cook you food way better than she can"

"Is someone jealous?" Someone whispers into Perrine's ear. She quickly turns round ad spots Shirley standing over her with a grin on her face and Lucchini standing at her side looking amused.

"I am most certainly not jealous" Perrine replies as she regains her composer. "I have no idea what you are on about"

"You such a liar we heard everything" Shirley answers with a big laugh.

"Yeah we heard everything" Lucchini adds. "Oh Major Sakamoto eat my food not Yoshika's"

"Oh Major ditch that raccoon dog and come with me" Shirley says joining in on Lucchini's mocking.

"Shut up both of you!" Perrine snaps. "I am a lady of Gallia not some jealous commoner"

"Yeah sure you keep telling yourself that" Shirley says as she Lucchini leave. "But you better move fast if you don't want to lose her"

"Don't worry me and Major Sakamoto won't loss each other any time soon!" Perrine shouts after them as they shut her bedroom door behind them as they leave.

* * *

**Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V**

* * *

The room she shares with Erica is a mess mostly due to Erica's clutter which litters the floor and covers her friend's bed forcing her to sleep on the cold hard floor. Erica was lead on the floor wrapped up in a thin bed sheet sleeping calmly ignoring the morning trumpet that raises everyone from their slumber. Erica just ignores the wake up trumpet and moaning from her roommate, she just close her eyes and goes back to sleep.

"Come on Hartmann get up!" Gertrud yells as she violently shakes her roommates and best friends shoulder after ten minutes of trying to wake her up gently. "Breakfast will be ready soon and the morning trumpet has already gone off!"

"It's too hot" Erica moans as she tries to get back to sleep. "Wake me up when its cooler"

"No Hartmann you are getting up now!" Gertrud yells back as she turns bright red only now realizing Erica is lying naked on the floor. "For god sake get dressed a soldier of Karlsland must never look indecent"

"I will when it's cooler" Erica whines again as she gets up exposing her naked body, turning Gertrud's face red, sleepily rub's her eyes free of sleep and yawns. "I'll be ok eating breakfast like this"

"No you won't now get dressed!" Gertrud shouts at her as she tries to overcome her embarrassment. "You can't eat breakfast naked it's indecent and apart from Shirley and Eila now one else will like to see you like this"

"You'll be alright if it was Miyafuji naked instead of me won't you?" Erica teases as she rummages through the mess around her for her cloths.

"What are you on about I would never even think about something like that let alone allow it now get dressed we're already late" Gertrud states as she turns away as her chees begin to turn red. The image of Yoshika serving breakfast wearing nothing but a white apron enters her mind, she pictures Yoshika severing her a plate of food then turning around exposing her naked backside.

"I bet you are thinking about Yoshika now" Erica continues to tease as she passes Gertrud now fully dressed and notice her red cheeks. "You are probably picturing her serving breakfast wearing only an apron"

"I am not now hurry up we are late" Gertrud snaps back as she grabs Erica's wrists and drags her towards the dining hall.

"You're too easy to read Trude" Erica giggles as she lets herself be dragged away.

* * *

**Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen P.O.V**

* * *

Eila was just waking up as the morning trumpet sounded through the building. She looked around her blacked out room and spots what she was looking for. Her best friend Sanya sleeping soundly on top of her bed in her underwear with black ear moths over her ears blocking out the sound of the trumpets. Eila brought her those ear moths last year when she was on leave, visiting her family back in Suomus. After seeing her friend sleeping safe in her bed Eila got up and dressed into her uniform.

She left her room on her tiptoes and quietly walked down the hall so she doesn't wake Sanya towards the delicious smell of what most be Yoshika's cooking. She quietly enters the dining hall looking around to see who was already here. She was the last witch to arrive not including Sanya of cause and everyone else was already sitting at the table waiting for breakfast.

"Morning Eila" Yoshika calls as she and Lynne enter carrying a tray each of what looks like sushi.

"Morning" Eila replies as she takes a seat between to Lucchini and Erica. Everyone including Eila was sweating and already feeling the heat of the sun even though it has only just started to rise.

"When's this heat wave going to pass?" Lucchini cry's as she flops down onto the table as Yoshika places a plate of sushi in front of her.

"Yeah it's too hot and I think the Neuroi agree with me as they haven't attacked in this heat yet" Erica adds as she also rests her head on the table. The table cloth is immediately drenched in sweat and a dark pool can be seen around both Lucchini's and Erica's head.

"The Neuroi may not have attacked lately but that doesn't mean it is because of the heat Hartmann" Gertrud says as she picks her friends head up off the table. "So stop whining and eat your breakfast"

"She's right Erica" Minna adds. "We can't let our guard down no matter how hot it is"

"Yeah and that means that training is still on today ladies" Sakamoto says causing everyone to sigh. "Is that a problem" Sakamoto calls out while giving everyone a scary smile making even the toughest witch among them shake in fear.

"No ma'am" Everyone replies feeling terrified.

"Good but due to the heat it is mainly going to be target practice on the firing range" Sakamoto says to everyone's relief.

"Don't overdo it though" Minna cheerfully adds with a wink. "I don't want to lose anyone to heat stroke ok"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone replies as they begin to eat. Yoshika and Lynne did a great job like they always do when it comes to cooking. The may have a lot of work to do when it comes to fighting but their food they make is in a class of its own and there is not a chef on earth who can match them.

"This is delicious Yoshika can I have so more" Lucchini asks with her mouth still full

"Sure I just go get some more" Yoshika replies as she walks back into the kitchen

"Francesca, don't talk with your mouth full" Shirley scolds the young witch, she would have been more convincing if she hadn't have told Lucchini with her mouth full of food too.

"You two have no manners" Perrine says as she pokes at her food to see if it is alive.

"Yeah we know we don't that's what makes us so fun and loveable" Lucchini replies with a giggle and her mouth still full with food. At this point Yoshika returns with more food for the young witch and sets it down in front of her.

"Come on Perrine you should learn to have a little fun once in a while" Shirley tells her as she finishes her plate.

"I would rather be boring than do something as disgusting as that" Perrine replies before taking her first bite of sushi.

"Hey Trude you could earn to have some fun too" Erica teases her friend as she steals some sushi from Gertrud's fork.

"Hey Erica that was mine" Gertrud replies as she pulls her fork from Erica's mouth. "And I do have fun from time to time"

"Only when Chris is around though" Erica says as she nudges Gertrud's arm causing her to drop a piece of sushi she had just picked up with her fork. Gertrud sighs and picks up yet another piece of sushi.

* * *

**Miyafuji Yoshika P.O.V**

* * *

Yoshika and Lynne were in the kitchen washing up after breakfast. The day was only getting hotter as the sun continued to rise and even though they were only washing dishes the heat still made them both sweaty and exhausted. It takes them a lot longer than usual to wash the dishes because of the heat and by the time they are done both of their clothes are drenched in sweat.

"Is too hot today" Yoshika complains as she wipes a layer of sweat off her forehead. Yoshika normal doesn't complain about training but today she doesn't think anyone could train in this heat.

"I know but we can't do anything about the weather" Lynne replies as she pours them both another glass of cool refreshing water. "Here take this"

"Thanks" Yoshika says as she takes the cold glass in her hand and quickly downs the water. "Does Britannia normally have heat waves?"

"Um yeah but they never normally get this hot though" Lynne answers as the two of them leave the kitchen.

"Well to be honest I didn't think anywhere could be this hot" Yoshika says with a smile.

"Yeah me never" Lynne smiles back as they enter the dining hall to find Shirley, Lucchini, Erica and Eila sitting at the table laughing at something.

"Hey guys want to join us?" Shirley asks as she waves the two over.

"Don't we have training" Yoshika asks as she and Lynne walk over.

"Not anymore after seeing how hot it was Minna decided to call it off for today but Major Sakamoto, Perrine and Trude are still going to train" Erica says cheerfully. Yoshika and Lynne both look at each other and nod.

"Sure we'll join you what are we doing?" Lynne asks as she and Yoshika sit down.

"Truth or dare" Eila says with a grin on her face making both Lynne and Yoshika nervous.

"Alright let's get started" Shirley says as she places a bottle on the table and spins it. The bottle spins and spins until it finally comes to a stop pointing at Lucchini who lets out a sigh as Shirley asks her. "Truth or dare Lucchini?"

"I choice dare" Lucchini nervously answers.

"Ok you have to go and grope Barkhorn over there" Shirley says as she points out the open window at Gertrud who is stretching her muscles. Lucchini nods with a look of dread on her face as she creeps up to the window, climbs through it and jumps onto Gertrud's back and gropes her breasts. Gertrud literally throws Lucchini off of her and begins to lecture her. Lucchini looking terrified points towards the group still at the table and Gertrud gives Shirley a disappointed stare. Shirley just makes her madder by blowing her a kiss making Gertrud storms off stomping her feet as Lucchini crawls back in through the window and re-joins the group. Shirley spins the bottle again only this time a lot faster and it comes to halt pointing this time at Lynne who like Lucchini lets out a sigh when Shirley asks. "So Lynne, do you pick truth or dare?"

"Um truth, I pick truth" Lynne answers as she fears what dare Shirley would make her do if she picked dare.

"Ok tell me, have you ever had a wet dream?" Shirley asks with a grin as Lynne turns bright red with embarrassment.

"What?" Lynne asks as her face continues to brighten and she looks at the floor.

"Come on Lynne answer the question" Erica teases as she nudges Lynne's shoulder.

"Yes I have had on" Lynne answers after taking a deep breath and turning a shade of red Yoshika has never seen before.

"Ooh I guess we will find out who it was about if you dare pick truth again" Eila says while giggling as she spins the bottle much to Shirley's annoyance. The bottle spins round and keeps spinning till it stops pointing at Eila. "I pick dare"

"That was quick but ok for your dare you'll have to" Shirley says as she thinks for a moment. "You will have to go tell that mechanic that you love her"

"But she's an old lady" Eila says as she begins to panic as she looks at the grey haired lady fixing the light.

"Come on Sanya won't know about it" Shirley says as she pushes Eila towards the women. "A dares a dare"  
"Yeah a dares a dare" Lucchini adds.

"Fine, stop pushing me already" Eila says as she walks up to the women. As she reaches the women she takes a deep breath and says. "I love you"

"That's nice dear" The women replies without looking up or stopping her work. "Now go back to your friends and enjoy yourself"

"Ok bye" Eila says as she quickly makes her way back to the others as her face turns red.

"I take it your lovers now" Erica teases as Eila sits back down. "So when's the wedding?"

"There isn't going to be a wedding" Eila replies as she shakes her head.

"All well I guess you still have Sanya" Shirley says as she spins the bottle again. She spins it even faster and harder as if making up for the spin Eila stole from her.

"So when are you and Sanya getting married than?" Erica asks as she gets tired of watching the still fast moving bottle.

"Wait we aren't… we are not" Eila mutters as she stares at the floor turning even redder.

"Come on we all know you like her" Erica states as she nudges Eila. "Just tell us when the wedding…"

"We are not getting married!" Eila shouts as the bottle stops pointing at Erica. "Now it's your turn"

"Ok I pick truth" Erica calmly says with a grin on her face.

"That's the sprit" Shirley laughs. "Now tells us does Trude really want to fuck her little sis or is that just something you made up"

"Um yes I believe she really does" Erica says just before a pair of feet come stomping up behind her.

"Hartmann" Everyone turns to find Gertrud standing behind Erica with the look of hatred in her eyes and cheeks as red as tomatoes. "Stop lying and making stuff up about me"

"But you do…" Erica started to say but Gertrud cuts her off by pressing her hand down hard into Erica's shoulder. Erica is forced down onto the table, her face clenched in pain.

"No I don't and why are you playing this childish game anyway?" Gertrud asks as she press's even hard onto Erica's shoulder.

"Because it's fun" Erica says through gritted teeth. "Please let go your hurting me"

"Ok but you're coming with me" Gertrud says as she grabs Erica's arm and pulls her out of the room. "Cleaning your room will be a fitting punishment for lying"

"That's harsh and I wasn't…" Erica protests as she is dragged down the hall.

"Alright who's got a dare for me?" Shirley asks and everyone turns back to the game and finds the bottle is pointed at Shirley. She must of spun it when Erica was being dragged away

"Alright for your dare you have to grope the next person who goes through the door" Eila says hoping that it will be Gertrud since she's already pissed off.

"Ok I can hear someone heading this way" Shirley says as she and everyone else looks towards the door. Perrine walks into the room dripping with sweat and looking exhausted as she heads for the kitchen most likely to get a bottle of cold water from the fridge. Shirley quietly sneaks up behind her, wraps her arms around her and gropes her breasts.

"Hey what do you think you are doing?" Perrine asks as she tries to pull herself away from Shirley's grasps but fails as Shirley is too strong for her and easily holds Perrine in place as she begins to rub Perrine's Breasts. "Let me… gooooo!" Perrine moans as Shirley continues to molest her.

"Why you seem to be enjoying it?" Shirley says with a grin as she presses Perrine's breast together.

"I'm not now let go!" Perrine shouts as she finally manages to free herself and storms into the kitchen.

"Let me know if you want to go again darling" Shirley says as Perrine walks back by her and leaves the dining hall carrying two bottles of water. Shirley returns to the group but instead of spinning the bottle she turns to Yoshika and says with a grin on her face. "I think it's only fair if you have a turn now Yoshika"

"Yeah it's your turn Yoshika" Eila says as she puts her arm around Yoshika. "Pick truth or dare"

"Um I pick dare" Yoshika answers nervously.

"Ok you have to kiss Lynne" Shirley says causing Yoshika and Lynne to turn bright red. The two turn to face each other and hesitate.

"Go on kiss her" Lucchini says as she grows tired of watching them stare at each other. Yoshika leans in and kisses Lynne on the lips stealing her first kiss and losing her own. The whole time they kiss Yoshika can't believe how soft Lynne's lips are or how warm they are. The kiss only lasts a few moments but to Yoshika it seems like an eternity of bliss. As soon as the kiss is over Yoshika and Lynne both look down embarrassed but Yoshika secretly desires another kiss from Lynne.

* * *

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

The paper work was starting to pile up in Minna's office. She has been filling it out relentlessly since she finished breakfast but she has hardly made a dent in the mounting of paper. She is normally a fast writer but with today's heat it's taking her twice as long as usual to complete. Her hands are covered in sweat that constantly drips down the pen she's writing with and onto the report she's writing. She's already had to scrap five reports and start again because her sweat saturated the paper she was writing on to the point where it disintegrated in her hands.

The whole time she is writing her report she wishes she didn't have to write one. Her thoughts keep drifting to Sakamoto, her smiling face, her long black hair and her naked body siting in the bath next to Minna. She is so caught up in her thoughts and paper work that she doesn't notice Sakamoto enter until she gently touches her on the shoulder. Sakamoto only gently touches her but it's still enough to make Minna jump out her skin.

"Sorry I didn't mean to scare you" Sakamoto smiles at Minna.

"It wasn't your fault I was just caught up in work that I didn't even notice you enter" Minna says as she turns round and returns Sakamoto's smile.

"Here you look like you need it" Sakamoto says as she hands Minna a bottle of water.

"Thanks" Minna replies as she takes the water from Sakamoto.

"Why do you have more paper work to do now than when the Neuroi attack?" Sakamoto asks as she looks at the pile of papers on Minna's desk.

"Because Command doesn't like to give me a day off" Minna says as she stands and wraps her arms around Sakamoto's waist. Sakamoto immediately moves her arms around Minna's neck as she leans in and their two lips meet in a passionate kiss. Their tongues compete with each other as they seek dominance over the other.

"So how about I help you so we can carry this on" Sakamoto whispers into Minna's ear sending a shiver through her body.

"Sure" Minna whispers back and she quickly kiss Sakamoto on the neck before they break apart and begin to storm through the paper work on Minna's.

* * *

**Lynette Bishop "Lynne" P.O.V**

* * *

Lynne was lying onto of her bed. After Yoshika kissed Lynne Gertrud returned and forcefully put an end to the game by smashing the bottle. Lynne went straight to her room to lie down, she's been lying down for the last hour thinking about the kiss she shared with Yoshika. That was Lynne's first kiss and she knew it was Yoshika's too. She never thought a kiss could make her feel so warm inside. She always believed that all you would feel was the lips of her kisser pressed against her own. She keeps thinking about how warm and happy the kiss made her feel and she can't help but wonder if Yoshika had felt something too from kissing her. "She must have" Lynne tells herself. "Surely she felt something too" Whether what she felt was good or bad remains to be seen. "I hope she doesn't hate that kiss and that it will come between us"

"Lynne" Someone says through the door as they knock. It's strange because that sounds like Yoshika and this is her room is well so she shouldn't have to knock before she enters. "Um Lynne can I come in and speak with you?"

"Um yes, come in" Lynne replies as she sits up on her bed. Yoshika slowly enters the room and walk up to Lynne looking nervous.

"Um Lynne I… I" Yoshika struggles to get out and she has to take a deep before telling Lynne. "I'm sorry if what happened earlier please don't let it come between us Lynne"

"Yoshika of course I want let this come between us" Lynne says as she hugs Yoshika. "Nothing will ever come between us"

* * *

**Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen P.O.V**

* * *

Eila was still with Shirley and Lucchini as they walk through the base. It was not even noon yet and the days already boiling. The three witches are drenched in sweat and are getting tired of walking. Eila was used to the heat from the sauna but this heat is on a whole different level.

"Man and I thought saunas were hot" Eila says as the group decide to sit down in an upstairs hall looking over the court yard.

"Yeah I've been in the desert before and even there it was cooler" Shirley adds as she wipes a layer of sweat off of her forehead. "This heat is unbearable"

"Yeah" Lucchini agrees.

"How can it be this hot…? Oh shit!" Shirley says as she watches a large Neuroi burst out of the ground in the courtyard quickly followed by six smaller Neuroi. "Neuroi get to the hanger"

The alarm goes off seconds after the girls start running for the hanger. Neuroi beams begin to rain down on the base causing large explosions where ever they land and several fires begin to break out across the base. Falk and tracers from AA fire fills the sky but have little effect on the attacking Neuroi and now another larger Neuroi bursts out of the ground just outside the base followed by ten smaller Neuroi. They meet Yoshika, Lynne and Sanya at the door to the hanger and enter to find the rest of the witches preparing to take off.

"Hurry up ladies we got to get out there!" Sakamoto shouts as they enter the hanger. Everyone quickly gets into their Strikers and takes off. Within seconds of the last witch leaving the hanger another large Neuroi and six smaller Neuroi burst out of the hanger and opens fire on the witches causing them to break formation and take evasive actions. Two large Neuroi and about twenty smaller Neuroi are now approach the base as the fly low across the sea.

All of the large Neuroi are the same shape, a giant cone covered with red dots. The smaller Neuroi are all spear shaped with one red dot at the tip. Most of the base is now a burning ruin filling the sky with thick black smoke.

"Barkhorn, Erica and I will attack the Neuroi approaching from the sea; Sakamoto and Yoshika attack the Large Neuroi on the left, Shirley and Lucchini take the centre, Perrine an Eila take the right" Minna orders. "Lynne and Sanya gain altitude and provide long distance support"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone replies as they move in formation and begin to attack. Eila follows Perrine towards their target, eight Smaller Neuroi try to block their path but Perrine easily deals with them.

"I got them TONNERRE!" Perrine shouts sending a lightning bolt into all the spears destroying them all instantly. Perrine slows down as she attacks and Eila passes her and opens fire on the cone cutting it in half. The top breaks apart and the bottom have already started to regenerate.

"The cores in the bottom half!" Eila yells to Perrine as she catches up with her.

"Right lets go get it" Perrine says as she and Eila both charge the Neuroi. "I attack from the right and you attack from the left"

"Got it" Eila replies as she cork screws and positions herself on the left. She charges the Neuroi dodging every shot it fires at her, she returns fire and deals the Neuroi some serious damage. Perrine attacks straight after giving the Neuroi no chance to recover putting a line of bullets into the Neuroi hitting the core triggering the Neuroi to shatter into tiny shinny pieces.

* * *

**Francesca Lucchini P.O.V**

* * *

Lucchini and Shirley attacked together in a tight formation. Between them they shoot down all of the spears with accurate bursts of fire from their guns. Within seconds of beginning their attack they have a clear run at the cone shape Neuroi. They open fire and split the Neuroi into three pieces. The middle section is the only part not to shatter into millions of shiny pieces.

"Target the middle" Shirley says as they both pull up and loop back around charging the Neuroi. They charge it again cutting it into even smaller pieces. They still don't relent as they circle back around and destroy the only small piece of Neuroi left.

"Yeah take that you stupid Neuroi" Lucchini cheers as she hugs Shirley in triumph.

"Calm down Lucchini the battle isn't over yet" Shirley tells her pushing the young witch gentle off her..

"We can still celebrate these Neuroi's are push overs" Lucchini continues to cheer.

"That may be so but we shouldn't let our guards down because of it" Shirley warns the young witch.

* * *

**Mio Sakamoto P.O.V**

* * *

Sakamoto is flying above the above the cone shaped Neuroi using her magical eye to seek out its core. She's leaving the Spears to Yoshika and out of the corner of her eye she can see that Yoshika has shot down most of them and is chasing after the last two. She can't help but feel proud at the young witch who has shown so much potential and has improved so much since she first arrived. Sakamoto is sure that one day Yoshika will lead the 501st Joint Fighter Wing to victory over the Neuroi. She scans the cone shape Neuroi seeking its core. She finally locates it at the back of the Neuroi towards the top. She ready's her weapon and dives concentrating her fire on the core as she dives towards the Neuroi. After a few short bursts from her gun and the core is destroyed. She pulls out of her dive and turns to see Yoshika destroying the last spear in the area.

"Good work Miyafuji" Sakamoto says as they regroup.

"Thank you ma'am" Yoshika replies.

"Alright everyone we are going to assist Minna's group" Sakamoto orders as she spots Minna, Gertrud and Erica still fighting. "Perrine, Eila, Lynne and Sanya stay here in reserve"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone replies as Sakamoto leads the charge towards the Neuroi. As they arrive there is only two spears left which Gertrud and Shirley destroy.

* * *

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

Minna is taking cover behind her shield in-between Sakamoto and Gertrud. As she looks to her side she can see Sakamoto's shield start to crack under the pressure of the Neuroi beams firing in all directions. Looking at Sakamoto herself you can tell she's not doing well. She's covered in sweat and breathing heavy. Every time she blocks with her shield she grunts from the effort.

"Mio get behind Yoshika now you won't last much longer if you carry on like that" Minna orders and is relieved that Sakamoto followed them without a complaint. Minna surveys the battle ground and comes up with a plan. "Trude, Erica, Shirley and Lucchini use the smoke for cover and attack from the North. Everyone else will stay here and prepare to attack on my order"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone says as they move out. Minna watches Gertrud lead the attack section into the fog and using her magic she tracks their movement. She watches Gertrud lead the section in a low level attack on the Neuroi.

"Ok everyone, attack" Minna orders as she leads the way down towards the Neuroi with Sakamoto right behind her. The attack is a massive success with Gertrud's team destroying three Neuroi and Minna's destroying another two. The remaining Neuroi open fire but they can't keep up with the witches as they twist and turn, climb and dive and duck and weave. Within minutes the remaining Neuroi are destroyed and the witches and finally afford to rest.

* * *

**Sanya V. Litvyak P.O.V**

* * *

Sanya and the other witches are flying over the burning ruins of their base looking for survivors that need help. But so far all they have found are the burning corpses of the support staff at the base. It doesn't look like anyone else has survive the attack as every building is completely engulfed in flames and everybody they find outside is nothing more than a burning corpse.

"Sanya" Eila calmly says as she fly's up beside her friend. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine" Sanya replied in her sweet quiet voice. "It's so sad that no one else lived through the attack"

"Yeah I never thought this place would ever be destroyed" Eila confessed. "We lost everything from this attack. Our base, possessions and everyone who helped us is gone"

"Don't worry, we will…" Sanya begins to say but stops when she sees the old lady mechanic standing outside the burning hanger. "Eila look someone's alive down there" Sanya says as she points down to the old lady walking onto the runway.

"We found someone on the runway near the hanger" Eila says over the radio as she watches the women on the runway. As Eila watches the women she can't help stare in shock as the women skin turns black, her eyes red and she starts to slowly float up off of the ground and towards Eila and Sanya. "Neuroi, the women's turned into a fucking Neuroi!"

"Wait, repeat your last" Sakamoto replies over the radio. "Did you say she turned into a Neuroi?"

"Yes she just transformed right in front of me" Eila answers as the woman Neuroi charges right at her shooting a pair of beams from her eyes and for the first time ever Eila is forced to use her shield. "We need help its attacking!"

"Hold on we are on our way" Minna says over the radio as the Neuroi shoots in-between Eila and Sanya and heads out towards the sea.

"Where is it?" Gertrud asks as she and the others arrive.

"Over there it's hiding in the clouds just off shore" Sanya says as she uses her magic to detect the Neuroi.

"Right Erica, Gertrud, Sanya and Eila attack it head on, Yoshika, Lynne and Sakamoto attack from the left and Shirley, Lucchini come with me and attack from the right" Minna orders as she uses her magic to detect the Neuroi is well.

Sanya stays behind the other witches in her group and fires four rockets into the clouds where the Neuroi is hiding but the Neuroi shoots out two lines of beams destroying three of the rockets before they enter the clouds. The fourth rocket explodes in the clouds above the Neuroi casing it to fall down out of its hiding place.

* * *

**Miyafuji Yoshika P.O.V**

* * *

Yoshika and Lynne follower Sakamoto towards the tracer fire coming from Gertrud's group as they engage the Neuroi. They can easily see the Neuroi as it is lit up by tracers and explosions. As they get nearer they can see the witches dogfight with the Neuroi which seems to be extremely nimble and fast.

"You two stay her and cover me well I search for the core Lynne engage the Neuroi from here" Sakamoto orders as she lifts up her eye patch and scans the Neuroi seeking out its core. "I see the core it's located in its head"

"Got it" Minna says over radio as she and her group descend guns blazing towards the Neuroi.

"Come on you two" Sakamoto says as she charges the Neuroi. Yoshika and Lynne don't hesitate to follow after her and tighter the three charges the Neuroi. That's when it happens. The Neuroi waits for all the witches to get close before opens its stomach exposing a multi coloured crystal before exploding.

Yoshika is engulfed by a blue light. She can't see anything but blue, she can't move or even make a sound. Suddenly she feels like the whole world is being spun round. At that point she blacks out as the blue light intensifies.

"Yoshika wake up! Yoshika please wake up!" Yoshika awakes to Lynne kneeling over her with tears forming in her eyes. As soon as Lynne notices Yoshika's awake she wraps her in a fierce hug which nearly squeezes the life out of her.

"Lynne its ok I'm awake now so can you please stop crushing me" Yoshika asks as Lynne continues to squash her.

"Oh I'm sorry" Lynne says as she finally let's go and wipes away the tears that are crawling down her cheek. "Are you sure you are ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine I just blacked out" Yoshika replies with a smile. It is only now that Yoshika realises that she is lying down on a concrete floor inside of a building with no roof. Judging by the sky it's drawn and the sun is only just rising in the blue cloudless sky. "Where are we? Where is everyone else?"

"We don' know where we are. We reckon this is some kind of factory but apart from that we don't know. Everyone else is looking around the factory to see where we are right now" Lynne calmly tells Yoshika as helps Yoshika up. "Commander Minna and Major Sakamoto are on the roof and want us to meet them up there when you wake up"

"Ok let's go" Yoshika says as she looks up at the blue sky. "Isn't the roof missing?"

"Only in this part of the building" Lynne informs her as they begin to walk towards the roof.


	2. The Factory

**Unknown Factory**

**Mio Sakamoto P.O.V**

* * *

The area around the factory was grassy hills with a few small brick buildings falling apart scattered around the factory. There's not a soul in sight and the only wildlife Sakamoto and Minna has seen are a few birds flying over. The sun is only just rising up over a mountain to the east and there are only a few white fluffy clouds are visible in the bright blue sky. The air is more cooler than it's been recently and the smell of flowers Sakamoto is used to smelling when she first wakes up is gone, instead it's been replaced by the smell of oil and steel from the factory.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Sakamoto asks as she scans the horizon.

"No I don't have a clue" Minna replies doing the same. "I don't recognise anything around here"

The two of them look around for any sign of civilisation but only see ruins and an endless sea of grassy green hills with a frost in the distance to the west and a tall mounting to the east. There are no signs of any human being anywhere near here recently. There's the sound of glass being crushed gets the two's attention and they turn round to see Yoshika and Lynne walking towards them.

"Yoshika are you ok? You had us worried there for a seconded" Sakamoto says as they she and Minna walk over to meet Yoshika and Lynne.

"I'm fine you don't need to worry" Yoshika answers.

"Good, Yoshika I need you to cheek if you can still use your magic" Minna says.

"Ok I check right away" Yoshika replies as she summons her familiar, a pair of dog ears appears on her head and a tail grows out of her lower back. She uses a healing spell on the air in front of her. "My magic still works fine"

"Great it only appears we lost our strength then" Minna replies as she turns back to Sakamoto. "Come to think of it we lost are weapons and Strikers is well"

"Ah I can't believe I missed something like that" Sakamoto replies as she smacks herself in the head. "I have no idea where they went"

"No me never I guess we have to hope the others find them during their search" Minna says as she shakes her head. "Now where were we? That's it Lynne, Yoshika Eila and Sanya found a medical room on the second floor near the front of the building. I want you both to go there and see if you can find anything useful"

"Yes ma'am" Lynne and Yoshika say both simultaneously.

Minna and Sakamoto watch the two walk off and go back to looking out and trying to come up with a plan. The wind is starting to pick up now as it blows over the grassy plains around the factory sending a shiver through Minna's body.

"Well at least its cooler here" Minna says trying to stay positive.

"Yeah maybe now I can complete my morning training" Sakamoto says back with a smile and her trademark laugh.

* * *

**Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V**

* * *

"Oh my god this waters is so fucking cold!" Erica loudly moans as she and Gertrud enter the flooded basement of the factory. In the dim light of the sun only two things that look like generators are viable and a large metal door at the other end of the room.

"Shut up Hartmann Minna ordered us to cheek the basement and that's exactly what we are going to do" Gertrud tells her as they walk towards the metal door ignoring the shivers in her body caused by the freezing water.

"Can't you at least carry me this water is freezing" Erica continues to moan.

"No now suck it up and come on the quicker we search the basement the quicker you can get out of the water" Gertrud points out as she reaches the metal door and try's to open it. The door doesn't budge so Gertrud summons her familiar and punches the door repeatedly until it falls over. Inside the room are several rows of shelf's and a metal cylinder in the centre which is slowly opening. Inside the tube is a man shaped machine that faces Gertrud and points his arms at her. "What the fuck is that?"

"Intruder detected" The machine screeches at Gertrud. "Eliminate intruder"

"What is…?" Gertrud manages to say before the machine fires two lasers from its hands at her forcing her to use her shield. "Erica help there's a machine in there shooting"

"What are you on about?" Erica says as she skips over to her smiling. But as she starts to pay attention to what is happening and sees her friend's shield her smile is wiped from her face. "Oh shit what should I do?"

"We are going to burst into that room" Gertrud tells her. "I'll go left and you right, draw its fire and I'll smash it up"

"Ok let's do it" Erica says as she runs into the room and Gertrud followers' right behind her charging the machine. Getting past that thing was surprisingly easy. It is slow and not very accurate. Gertrud easily makes it to a concrete pillar and takes cover waiting for Erica to draw its fire. Erica starts to throw random objects at the machine but unfortunately the machine pays her no attention and continues to fire at Gertrud. "Um Trude it hates you too much to attack me"

"Shut Hartmann annoy it like you annoy me!" Gertrud shouts as the machine closes in on her.

"Sure I'm on it" Erica says with a giggles as she runs and jumps on the machines back wrapping her hands tightly around its body. "Gertrud I could use some help here"

"Oh my god you are too reckless" Gertrud says as she charges the machine and punches it with all her strength in its hard metal chest. Her fist disappears into its chest causing sparks and smoke to seep out of the hole she made. The machine falls onto the flooded floor turning the clear cool water oily black.

"What the fuck is that?" Erica asks as she stands over the machine and pokes it with her toe.

"No idea but Erica I want you to go get Minna and bring her here while I start to search through these boxes" Gertrud says as she looks at the machine.

"Why do I have to go?" Erica moans. "There are too many steps to climb"

"Would you rather stay here and search through boxes?" Gertrud replies as she looks through the nearest box.

"On second thought the roof seems nice" Erica says running out of the room.

* * *

**Charlotte E. Yeager "Shirley" P.O.V**

* * *

"Lucchini are you done searching those cupboards yet?" Shirley asks she finishes sorting through a dozen boxes of gone off food. Shirley and Lucchini have found what appears to be a kitchen and are currently searching through the cupboards for food and water. Unfortunately all they have been able to find so is six bottles of water and a knife. Everything else here seems to be rotting.

"Yes but I could only find a plastic bag" Lucchini says as she shows off her find. "Everything else was rotten"

"Ok hold the bag open while I put the water inside" Shirley instructs as she picks up a bottle of water in each hand. She begins to drop the water bottles into the bag just as an alarm sounds and part of the wall slides open letting a metal man walk through the gap and into the room.

"Intruders detected" The metal man screeches as it raises its hands towards the two witches.

"Um Shirley what is that?" Lucchini asks nervously as she grabs Shirley's arm.

"I don't know but… watch out!" Shirley yells as she raises her shield to block several laser shots from the metal man. "Lucchini take cover!"

Shirley keeps her shield raised as she watches the young witch take cover behind the counter. She quickly dives behind another counter as she lowers her shield, she manages to grab the knife she found earlier as she dives and now holds it ready for battle. Shirley can her the metal feet of the metal man clank on the floor as it slowly and steadily walks towards her keeping both her and Lucchini pinned down with laser fire.

"Honestly I can't leave you two alone for a second can I, TONNERRE!" Perrine cockily says as before she shoots a bolt of lightning into the machine destroying it. "Now please tell me why that thing is attacking you"

"We don't know the wall just opened and it walked out and started shooting at us" Lucchini tells her as she peeks round the corner at the smoking metal man on the floor with fear in her eyes.

"We should report this to the Commander and Major right away" Perrine says and the other two nod in agreement.

* * *

**Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen P.O.V**

* * *

Eila and Sanya are in the medical room helping Yoshika and Lynne search for supplies. Eila was the one that first found the room and was enjoying the fact that no one else has found anything as good as her yet. She was looking forward to bragging about it to Lucchini as they had bet earlier about who will find the most stuff. So far their search of this room has turned up two rolls of bandages, a full bottle of pain killers and three and a half boxes of plasters.

"All right I think that's everything lets head back up to the roof" Yoshika says as she crawls out of a cupboard she was searching holding a half filled plastic bag containing cotton balls in her hands.

"Well it isn't much but I guess it will do" Eila says as she looks over their collection of medicines. Just as they are about to leave a clanking sound comes from the hallway and is getting closer and closer to them.

"What is that sound?" Sanya says terrified as she hides behind Eila's back.

"I don't know but it's getting closer" Lynne says as she hugs Yoshika's arm.

"Everyone, hide and keep quiet" Eila says as the clanks sound like they are coming from right outside the room. The girls just manage to hide themselves just in time before some kind of machine walks into the room while another two wait outside in the hallway watching both directions.

"Scanning room" The machine screeches out as a blue light admits from its glass head and rolls up and down the room covering every inch. "Life form detected checking personal records. No match found lethal force is authorised"

As soon as the machine says that it opens fire with its laser and the other two spin round to join in the fight. But as soon as one of those machines open fire one of them it suddenly explodes and falls to the ground in a smoky heap. Then out of nowhere Shirley charges the other machine in the hall and slams a fire axe into its glass head with all her might. The machine instantly falls to the ground with sparks flying out of its head. Shirley doesn't get a chance to pull the axe out because the machine in the room now turns and fires at her. The machine starts to walk out of the room to get a better firing position on Shirley when Eila sees an opportunity to take it out. She picks up a metal tray and jumps over the table she was hiding behind striking the machine in the back of its glass head causing it to shatter but unfortunately the machine still stayed standing and turned round to face Eila.

"No, Eila!" Sanya screamed which shocked everyone in the room as she has never been so loud before. Sanya got up from behind the desk and charged the machine holding a wooden stool over her head. She managed to reach the machine before it could fire and hit it in the side of the head shattering the wooden stool on impacted. The machine falls to the ground dead, sparking and leaking black oil all over the floor.

"Thanks Sanya" Eila says as she tries to get over her shock of seeing Sanya act like that and scream so loud.

"Eila are you ok?" Sanya says as she turns to face Eila with tears in her eyes. "That thing didn't hurt you did it?"

"No I'm fine Sanya thanks to you" Eila says as she hugs Sanya. "So calm down ok"

"Ok I will" Sanya replied as she breaks away and wipes the tears from her eyes.

"Are you guys ok in there?" Shirley asks as she walks into the room carrying the fire axe.

"Yes we are all fine thank you for saving us" Yoshika says as she and Lynne gets up from their hiding space.

"You better be grateful I'm exhausted from that" Perrine says as she walks round the corner with Lucchini straighten her glasses. "That's the third time today I had to us that spell"

"We are thank you" Lynne says. "What are these things?"

"Don't know they just appeared and stared firing" Shirley says as she spots the pile of medical supplies lying on the able. "Here put these medical supplies in her with the water we found and come with us up to the roof and tell Minna about this"

* * *

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

"What is happening down there we though we head Neuroi beams firing and were just about to head down there?" Sakamoto asks as everyone but Gertrud appears on the roof. "Where's Barkhorn by the way?"

"She's still in the basement and says there is something you need to see" Erica replies as she catches her breath after running all the way to the roof.

"Ok but first tell us what's happening" Minna says as everyone gathers round her.

"These metal men came out of nowhere saying "Intruder alert" and started shooting at us" Lucchini tells Minna.

"What do you mean by metal men?" Sakamoto asks as he thinks about all the armour she knows about.

"They were some kind of machine" Shirley says.

"They shoot lasers from their hands and can detect people with a blue light from their glass heads is well" Eila adds.

"Ok we are all going to the basement together, find Trude and then we are getting out of here" Minna says before she walks through the group towards the stairs.

"I still don't understand what you mean by metal men" Sakamoto says as she rubs her chin and catches up to Minna.

"Don't worry there is one down there me and Trude smashed up earlier you can see" Erica says with pride as she sticks out her chest and smiles.

* * *

**Brotherhood of Steel Headquarters**  
**Fort Excel**  
**Dean Carmon P.O.V**

* * *

Dean was walking along the outer wall of Fort Excel enjoying the cool breeze on this clear blue day. Dean would normally walk the outer perimeter every day if the weather was nice. There is normally no one around to disturb him just an encircling reinforced concrete wall topped with barbed wire and sentry guns positioned on evenly around the perimeter wall. Only his footsteps on the pavement and the singing of the birds can be heard here if you ignore the swivelling sound the sentry guns make when turning. But peaceful times like these can't last for ever and Dean's time is ended by a call over his radio.

"This is Paladin Dean Carmon here" Dean says into his radio. The radio is built into his power armour that every Brotherhood knight and paladin wears. The power armour suits provide excellent protection from small arms fire as well as increase the wears strength, stamina and speed. The helmet has a built in radio and gasmask to help the wearer. On his left wrist the scribes has built in a Geiger counter and on the right they have added a map of the area.

"Paladin you have been ordered to head to the briefing room and wait for Knight Captain Franco" The voice on the other end of the line tells him. "You have been transferred to his squad and will be their squad's medic from now on"

"Ok I'm on my way" Dean replies as he begins to walk back towards the old fort built years ago to defend the coast from attack.

The two large guns of the fort lay dead but soon the Knights and Scribes say they could be working. The fort is buried under a grassy hill under the two great guns with only five small metal doors and two hatches to leave and enter by. As Dean walks her passes by twelve Initiate doing there morning training of push ups and hand to hand training, another six are at the firing range and two more are retrieving medical attention, probably from the hand to hand training he thinks back to how much he hated to be a Initiate. The inside of the old fort is tight and cramped until you take the lift down to the bunker that was built before the Great War that destroyed the planet and turned the world into a radioactive waste land. The bunker is wide and open with wide well light corridors, several rooms and rooms overflowing with supplies from which the Brotherhood used to build the outer wall when they first arrived at the fort six years ago. The briefing room isn't hard to find as it is the first door on the left when you exit the lift.

Dean enters the room to find two fellow Paladins and a Knight Sargent already there. They are all sitting down quietly and only give Dean a quick glance as he enters. They probably think he's a liability out there in the field as he only just got promoted to Paladin three weeks ago and has only been involved in combat four times before. Compared to these guys who go out and fight on a daily bases he is still a baby in the world of warfare. He only just manages to seat down before Knight Captain Franco walks into the room with an eye bot follower in him around floating just above his head.

"Alright brothers I'll get straight down to business" The Knight Captain says as he dims the light and uses a remote control to start a projector. An aerial image of a raider camp lights up the wall behind the Knight Captain. "These raiders have been digging around their camp defences recently and have just unearthed an old-world drone. The Elders believe this drone to contain important technological secretes that can help us rebuild the world to its former self. Our mission is to move in, eliminate the raider camp and recover the drone's head as that is believed to contain the brain of the machine. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Yes what kind of weaponry do the raiders possess and what are their numbers?" The Knight Sargent asks and only now Dean could tell she's a woman. It is nearly impossible to tell with all the power armour she wears but that voice is too feminine to belong to a man.

"Our scouts say they are only equipped with rifles, submachine guns and shotguns" The Knight Captain tells her. "Satellite and Scout reports show there are only twelve raiders at the camp and two dogs"

"What's the attack plan?" The Paladin to Deans left asks. "Is it going to be a fire fight or sneaking type attack?"

"The plan is to move to this ridge here and recon the camp" The Knight Captain says as her uses the remote to change the pitcher to a close up of a ridge that overlooks the camp. "We'll make our attack plan from there and I'll provide sniper fire from this position"

"Is that eye bot coming with us?" The same Paladin from before asks.

"Yes it is a prototype eye bot with advanced amour and weaponry. Are there any other questions?" He answers and waits a few minutes for someone to ask him a question. "Grab your gear we move out in thirty minutes. Oh Jayson, look after the rookie today"

"Don't worry sir I'll take good care of him" Paladin Jayson answers and he turns out to be the Paladin that never spoke during the briefing. "Come on rook lets go gear up"

We walk into the armoury across the hall and line up behind the rest of the squad to get our weapons and ammo from behind the glass wall at the other side of the room. There's a young teenage boy behind the glass collecting a Gauss rifle and pistol for the Knight Captain. The Knight Sargent is next the boy hands her a laser rifle and pistol. The Paladin that I don't know steps forward and receives a Gatling laser and pistol before turning back with a smile on his face.

"Oh by the way George over there loves big guns and fire power" Jayson tells me as he steps up to the counter. He receives a laser rifle, pistol and a missile launcher from the boy. "It will be a big mistake to get on his bad side"

"Good to know" Dean replies as he takes his laser rifle and pistol from the boy.

"Alright everyone I just realized we never introduced ourselves to the rook" The Knight Captain says as he comes over to Dean. "I'm Knight Captain Alex Franco, Knight Sargent Samantha Gold but everyone calls her Sam over there is my seconded in command, I believe you already know Paladin Jayson Rights here and finally that guy with the big gun is Paladin Nathan Hiller"

"Nice to meet you Paladin Dean" Knight Sargent Gold says as she reaches out her hand.

"You too ma'am" Dean replies as he shakes her hand.

"Oh we don't care about rank in our squad so call me Sam" She says with a slight laugh. "Just obey orders in the field ok"

"Well now the introductions are done les head up to the surface and get some fresh air" Alex says as he touches both Dean and Sam on the shoulder.

"Sounds great I hate being underground" Jayson answers and the group start to walk towards the elevator.

"Yeah we even have some time to sunbath before the mission" Sam happily says as she presses the button to send the elevator up to the old fort.

"Calm down you won't get tanned with the time we have to wait" Nathan says as the elevator door closes and it starts to rise.

* * *

**Unknown Factory**

**Erica Hartmann P.O.V**

* * *

Erica was leading everyone down to the basement where Gertrud was waiting for them and searching through the flooded storage room. They manage to reach the flooded room without running into any more of those metal men but from the clanking sounds echoing through the building it is obvious there are still more of them out there hunter the witches down. The water is still freezing cold and like Gertrud the others have refused to give Erica a piggy back ride over the water.

"Hey Trude I'm back and I brought everyone else" Erica calls out as she walks into the storage room.

"Erica be quiet those things are looking for us remember" Minna tells Erica as she spots what everyone else has been on about, a metal man lying dead on the floor spilling oil into the clear water. "Is this one of those metal men you lot told me about?"

"Yes it is" Shirley says as she taps it with her toe to make sure it's dead.

"It doesn't look deadly" Sakamoto says as she bends over to examine the machine. "Where did the lasers shoot from because I can't see any weapons on it?"

"It shot them out of its hands" Lucchini quickly adds.

"Hey guys" Gertrud says as she walks up to the group who now has the machine surrounded. "We have a big problem"

"What is it now we have enough problems as it is?" Shirley says as she turns round to face Gertrud.

"Well we are not in our time anymore" Gertrud quietly says but no one hears her so she takes a deep breath and says it again louder so everyone can hear. "We aren't in our time anymore. We are in 2279"

"What are you on about Trude" Erica says as she walks up to her friend. "Don't joke around like that even though it's good that you found your sense of humour"

"I'm not joking I accidently switched on a box thing back there and it had the date and time in the bottom right corner of the screen" Gertrud replies as she avoids the hug Erica tries to give her. "That explains these laser firing machines is well"

"Show me this box" Minna orders and Gertrud leads her to the white box and points to the date and time. "I can't believe this is happening"

"Minna its ok it's probably wrong" Gertrud says trying to comfort Minna.

"I don't think so this technology is far more advanced than anything I have ever seen before and I don't think any country is close to reaching this level ever" Minna says. "We most likely are in the future"

"Uh Minna we need to get out of here those machines will find us down here eventually and even if they don't will get sick standing in this water for too long" Sakamoto says as she comes up behind the two.

"Yeah your right" Minna says as she gets up. "We are going to head for that forest we saw in the distance and try to think of something"

* * *

**Brotherhood of Steel Headquarters**  
**Fort Excel**

**Dean Camron P.O.V**

* * *

Dean and the rest of his squad have gathered in front of the outer wall gates and are in the process of completing their final perpetrations before leaving. In will take them about twelve hours of walking to reach the cliff face. Everyone is in high spirits as they wait for the Knight Captain to join them and order the big metal gats open. Apart from Dean and his squad there is only two other Brotherhood members here, both are Paladins guarding the gate with their laser rifles.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Alex says as he walks up to the group.

"Yes sir" Everyone replies eager to get going.

"Good answer, open the gates" Alex says as he takes up position in front of the gate. One of the paladin palls a lever causing the gate to slowly creeks open. "Let's get moving I want to be in position by nightfall"

On the other side of the gate is a small bridge joining the fort with the mainland. The bridge has seen better days as several holes in the floor are spanned by ever metal or wooden plates and most of the brick railing has disappeared. At the end of the bridge are another two Paladin are standing behind a sandbag wall. Two eye bots fly over the squad as they cross the bridge patrolling the forts perimeter. Outside the fort there are several ruined and burned buildings lining the shore. A small fishing boat lays stranded on top of a ruined house with a large hall in its hull and the mask snapped into several pieces.

"Man our ancestors sure knew how to make a mess of the world" Jayson says aloud as they walk through the ruins and step over burnt skeletons. "It's a shame they didn't get a chance to put the dead to rest the dead"

"Yeah I would hate to think of our brothers and sisters lying out their dead and not being able to find peace" Knight Sargent Sam says.

"Well there is nothing we can do about it know so let's keep on moving" Nathan says as he steps over a skeleton of a child lying curled up on the curve.

"He's right people; we need to keep moving if we want to make it to the cliff on time" Alex says as he walks around the same skeleton.


	3. On the Move

**Grassy Plain**

**Lynette Bishop "Lynne"**

* * *

The witches have been walking across the sea of grass for two hours now and are still some distance away from the forest. They managed to sneak past those metal men in the factory and escape into the fields and are now heading west. It's easy enough to keep on track as all you need to do is keep the mounting at your back and the forest is clearly visible. It looms in front of them stretching out in every direction as far as you can see and climbing on a small hill further back.

Lynne has been walking at the rear of the group holding Yoshika's hand as they go. Everyone is quiet and depressed as the shock of finding out they were hundreds of years into the future and wondering what has happened. How could the world fall apart like this? Are we the only people on earth? Are the Neuroi now ruling the world? These questions filled the girl's minds as they walk through the fields. The grass is waist high on Lynne and to Lynne it smells like summer back home. The smell of flowers and planets fills the air around Lynne and the cold breeze cools her from the warmth of the sun, she is grateful that the further away factory the less and less she smell the oil and steel.

"Um Lynne, do you think that we will find anyone else?" Yoshika asks as they walk across a small stream in the middle of the field.

"I don't know every building we have seen so far seems to be destroyed and we've seen no sign of anybody else yet" Lynne replies.

"I hope so then we can find out what happened and where we are" Yoshika says as her smile returns to her face for the first time since they arrived in this world. The sight of that smile warms Lynne's heart and she can't help but smile back.

"Yeah me… Ah!" Lynne scrams as the ground beneath her feet gives way to a large dark hole. Yoshika is the only thing stopping her from falling in. She desperately strains her muscles trying to stop Lynne from falling in.

"Help me Lynne's in trouble" Yoshika yells to the others as she struggles to hold Lynne and stop her from falling into darkness below. Within seconds Gertrud and Shirley arrive and grab hold of Lynne's arms and together all three of them pull Lynne up out of the hole.

"Lynne, are you ok?" Minna asks her as she knees down beside her clearly worried about the witches wellbeing.

"Yeah I'm I just scraped my shins" Lynne says as she sees the grazes on her shins.

"Oh let me get that for you" Yoshika says as she starts to us her healing magic. The slight sting Lynne was feeling started to fade as her shins healed. "There, all better"

"Thanks Yoshika" Lynne replies as she stands up and stretches her leg.

"Ok everyone from now on stay together and watch where you step" Minna orders as she gets back up. She looks over the hole and into the darkness below before adding. "Be careful and lookout for each other as we cross the field"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone responds as the start to move towards the woods once more. This though they are walking closer together and watch the ground for any sign of it collapsing on them again. After about another five minutes of walking they reach a dirt road cutting through the long grass of the fields.

"Shirley, Lucchini walk down the road to the left, Erica and Trude go right and see if any direction turns towards the forest" Minna orders as she looks down the road in both directions. "Don't go too far only walk for ten minutes before turning back"

"We're on it ma'am" Gertrud responds as she drags Erica away with her.

* * *

**Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V**

* * *

Gertrud pulls Erica scouting down the road like Minna ordered not letting her slow from the fast pace Gertrud was walking at. Erica seems to have given up trying to free herself from Gertrud after a few failed attempts and just lets herself be dragged away. Gertrud just wants to get the job done and scout as much territory as possible in the time limit Minna set them so she's determined to find a safe passage through the forest so no one will end up dead like Lynne nearly did. There's just one problem, Erica she's lazy and slow so Gertrud will not let her go until they make it back to the others.

"Can you let me go Trude this is starting to hurt?" Erica asks as she try's once again to free her arm from her friends grip.

"No you will only slow us both down and we have a time sensitive mission on our hands that we must complete" Gertrud replies as Erica gives up in her attempt to free herself.

"I promise I won't so let me go already my arm feels like it's going to fall of" Erica pleads as she continues to march on in Gertrud's tight grasp.

"Yes you will you are too lazy and will want to take a break as soon as I let go" Gertrud counters without even stopping or looking back.

"Fine then I'll prove to you that I won't so let's get going" Erica yells as she grabs hold of Gertrud and runs past her. Now it's Gertrud's turn to be dragged, her turn to be lead and her turn to feel her arm about to pop out of its socket. "See I won't slow you down"

"Ok I'll let you go now stop dragging me" Gertrud says letting Erica go. Erica spins round laughing. "See your slowing us down now not me"

"Shut up Hartmann and lets just get on with our mission" Gertrud replies as she walks past the still laughing Erica.

* * *

**Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen P.O.V**

* * *

Eila and Sanya were sitting against a stone wall a little bit away from the other witches as they wait for the scouting teams to return. Sanya has fallen asleep and is resting her head on Eila's lap. Her night patrol, the battle over the burning base and in the factory has taken its toll on her. Eila loves it when Sanya rests like this. She sits still feeling Sanya's warmth on her legs and combing her hand through Sanya's soft hair. Sanya looks so beautiful when she sleeps and Eila can barely keep her eyes of off her.

She keeps watching her as white dots appear and cut across her vision. Eila just shrugs it off think it's nothing more than flower petals drifting on the wind but as the white dots continue to fly across getting bigger and bigger she knows something's wrong. She tries to wake Sanya up for help but she can't move a muscle. She tries to call for help but she can't force any sound out of her mouth. The white lights soon engulf her and all she can see is white for the next few seconds. As soon as the white light fades and she can see the road and field again she find that she can move again and every one of the witches has disappeared from the road and Sanya is no longer sleeping on her lap.

"Hello is any one there?" Eila calls out as she looks all around her for any sign of her fellow witches but finds none and she only gets an eerie silence in response to her question. "Come on guys this isn't funny where did you go?"

Eila looks around but there isn't a soul in sight and the sky from a blue cloudless sky to a blood red one with a black sun. Suddenly the dirt road turns into a tarred road with a pavement and street lights on ever side. None of the street lights are working and a few have been knocked over. The road is covered in cracks and potholes. Tall buildings shoot out of the ground lining the road. The buildings are in just as bad shape as the road, huge chunks of the buildings are missing, burn damage and cracks can be clearly seen all over the building. Smashed and burned cars start to drop out of the sky to litter the road but when they land they don't make a single sound. The cars are like nothing Eila has seen before and the only reason how she knows they are cars is because she can see the engine in one of the cars and the wheels of other cars.

"What the fuck is going on?" Eila says out load as she spins around taking in the newly grown ruined city.

Five men wearing strange suits of grey armour suddenly appears out of thin air walking towards Eila. The armour they wear covers their bodies entirely leaving no trace of their skin and makes a slight mechanical sound when the wearer walks. The helmets have two black eyes and a built in gas mask by the looks of it that make all the wearers sound like they are breathing heavily. All of the men are carrying strange weapons that Eila hasn't seen before but she still recognises that one of them is carrying some kind of rocket launcher on his back. They walk right by her like they didn't even notice her. There's a small floating sphere following right behind them.

"Hello, can you help me?" Eila calls out after them but they pay her no attention. "Please I need help I don't know where I am and where my friends have gone"

"They can't see or hear you Eila" A quiet voice whispers behind Eila. She turns around a see's a floating white orb. "Don't be afraid I'm here to help you"

"Who are you?" Eila asks as she takes a step back and hides her shaking hands behind her back. She struggles to contain her fear and to remain calm but the shaking in her arms won't stop and sweat start to appear on her forehead and on the back of her neck.

"I'm a sprite that has seen what is to come" The orb tells her and as it speaks the light flickers each time the sprite speaks. "You, your squad mates and those people that you just seen are the only ones who can stop the coming death and destruction"

"Who are those people?" Eila asks as she looks back and sees the men disappear into thin air right in front of her.

"There with the Brotherhood of Steel" The sprite says as it starts to fade away. "I have to go now Eila. You must find them"

"Wait how will I find them?" Eila asks but too late as the sprite disappears before it can answer. The white dots return flying across Eila's vision getting bigger and bigger just like before until all she can see is white. When the whiteness fades she's back on the road leaning against the stone wall with Sanya sound asleep resting her had on her lap. She can hear the other witches talking amongst themselves. She can't believe what just happened to her. Nothing like that has ever happened to her before. "Sanya wake up I need to talk with you" Eila says as she gently shakes Sanya's shoulder. Sanya starts to stir but doesn't wake. "Sanya wake up"

"Eila what's wrong?" Sanya asks sleepily as she wakes up rubbing her eyes.

"I'm sorry to wake you but I need to talk to you" Eila answers feeling sorry for waking her friend who so desperately needed to sleep. "Something weird just happened to me"

"Ok what happened?" Sanya replies as she sits up and stretches her arms out.

"Well I saw white dotes floating around me and then I was in a city speaking to a sprite" Eila begins to tell her friend. She tells her everything that happened to her in the city and how she got there. She tells her about the spirit, the men in weird armour and about the warning the spirit gave her about the upcoming devastation.

"Are you sure it wasn't a dream?" Sanya asks trying to come up with an explanation for her friend.

"No it didn't seem like a dream. It felt to real and I never seen some of the things I did there before" Eila answered shaking her head. "Do you think I should tell Minna about this?"

"No I think you should wait until we find a safe spot inside the forest before you tell her, she already has too much on her mind right now" Sanya suggests.

* * *

**Mio Sakamoto P.O.V**

* * *

Sakamoto was sat next to Minna helping her come up with a plan. Finding a safe place to hide in the forest is fine for tonight but they still need to find food and water as six bottles won't last long. They are fine for now on medical supplies but she hopes they never have to use those supplies and will make it home safe and in one piece. Hopefully they will be able to find some edible plants or be able to hunt for food in the forest when they get there. That will take care of their food problem and maybe they will stumble onto a spring to solve their water problem is well.

"We need to find someone soon" Minna says staring at the dirt. "I don't know how much longer we will last out here without help"

"Don't give up yet Minna" Sakamoto quietly says so Lynne, Yoshika and Perrine won't hear their Commander like this. "You'll our Commanding Officer if you give up then everyone will get depressed and give up too"

"I'm not giving up" Minna replies as she looks up and into Sakamoto's eyes. "I just don't know what to do"

"Yes you do you just need to stop and think about it" Sakamoto tells her. "Eila can hunt to get us some food, Yoshika can heal our wounds, Lucchini can climb trees to get us fruit high in the trees and Barkhorn, Hartmann, Shirley and myself can protect everyone from harm. We just need you to lead us"

"Yeah your right thanks Mio this helped me a lot" Minna says as she give Sakamoto a quick smile. "As long as we work together we can get back home"

"Don't mention it I'm sure you would have done the same for me if the situation was reversed" Sakamoto says returning Minna's smile.

"Maybe to one of the other girls but I don't think you will ever give up even if you was dying" Minna tells her. "Well it look like the scouting teams are getting back"

Gertrude and Erica can be seen down the road walking back towards the group and Shirley and Lucchini walking towards them from other direction. As they get closer Sakamoto spots Shirley holding something in her hands. As the join the group it's clear that Shirley is holding some kind of animal. It's covered in fur, has along pink tail and a pointy nose.

"Hey guys we're back and we brought dinner" Lucchini announces as she jumps with joy over hers and Shirley's catch.

"What is that I've never seen one before?" Yoshika asks as she walks up and examines the creature.

"I don't know but it attacked us on our way back" Shirley says.

"Are you or Lucchini hurt?" Yoshika asks as she looks over the two witches for any sign of injury.

"No Shirley killed it with her axe before it got close to us" Lucchini cheerfully says.

"Well did the road led to the forest?" Minna asks them.

"No it leads back towards the factory" Shirley tells her.

"How about you two, did find anything?" Minna asks Gertrud and Erica as she spins round to face them.

"Yeah our road leads towards the forest but we don't know if it will go all the way to it though" Erica says with a smile on her face clearly proud to have found a path through the fields that couldn't collapse on them at any time like it did with Lynne.

"Ok everyone we will rest here for ten more minutes and then start moving towards the forest again" Minna says sounding more like her old self.

* * *

**Ruined City Outskirts**

**Dean Camron P.O.V**

* * *

Dean and his squad are about halfway through the outskirts of the ruined city. They are all on high alert and are on the lookout for Super mutants and feral ghouls that roam the city. The ruined city is scared by the Great War that destroyed the world. Every building is burnt, missing pieces and looking like they could collapse with the slightest breeze. Destroyed cars line the street and the road and pavements they are walking on is cracked and dotted with potholes. Skeletons piles created by the Super mutants to mark their territory appear on every street and every corner.

"We really should have cleared this city by now of the Super mutants" Jayson says aloud to anyone who's listening. "They've been nothing but a dangerous threat ever since the first one was born"

"Yeah I hear you" Nathan replies giving his Gatling laser a quick spin. "I could just tear them apart myself"

"That's a good attitude but you two need to shut up before they hear us" Sam tells them as they pass another pile of skeletons.

"Everyone into that shop on the left now I hear movement ahead heading this way" Alex orders as he points his gun down the street. He watches the street as everyone moves into the shop before joining them. The shop they are hiding in is an old china shop. Most of its goods have been smashed and litter the floor.

"What is it I can't hear anything?" Dean asks as he tries to hear what Alex can hear.

"A large group of Super mutants are heading this way and should pass right by us in a minute or two" Alex informs him.

"The Captains got a good pair of ears so if he says he hears something he hears something and you will learn that he's always right about what he hears" Jayson tells him.

"Everyone be quiet hey are approaching" Alex orders and for the first time Dean can hear footsteps in the distance.

Within seconds a Super mutant walks past the shop carrying a Chinese assault rifle followed close behind by two of the Super mutants carrying Assault rifles and another one carrying a Minigun. Walking a few steps behind them are another two Super mutants carrying Hunting rifles with a Centaur in-between them.

The Super mutants have green skin and wear shorts, boots, and some kind of metal plates over their chest and back with half a tire over each shoulder. They hold their weapons out in front of them as they walk pass unaware of the Brotherhoods position. They walk slowly so the Centaur can keep up with them. Dean used to have nightmares about the Centaurs when he was a child. Their slug like pink bodies with three pairs of hands and an armless torso always freaked him out and those three tentacles coming out of their chest always terrified him. But the thing that scared him the most was the dirty sticky radioactive goo blobs they spit out at their prey.

The group slowly pass by the shop with Dean and his squad mates holding their breaths the whole time. After a few minutes which felt like an eternity for Dean the Super mutants finally pass by the shop without spotting anyone and continue up the street taking their pet Centaur with them. Alex gets up and moves towards the window where he can watch them leave.

"Alright they are gone everyone move out quietly" Alex quietly whispers as he takes aim in the direction where the Super mutants where heading. "Nathan, move across the street and cover our rear" Everyone nods and moves back out onto the street; Alex waits for Nathan to get into position before he moves to the front of the group and starts leading the squad through the ruined city once again.

The wind is starting to pick up making a loud wailing noise as it blows through the city. The city may be filled with dangerous mutants but being in the silence hearing only the wind and his breathing Dean can't help but feel like there's no one else in the city other than his squad, those Super mutants and their pet Centaur. The sun is nearly high in the sky and white fluffy clouds start to fill the sky. It's meant to be a sunny day but weather predictions usually are never accurate so Dean keeps his eyes peeled for any sign of grey clouds on the horizon.

"Hey Jayson I thought that Mutants were meant to be stupid beasts but that group back there seems to be pretty organized to me" Dean asks Jayson as they cover the rest of the squad crossing the street from behind a burnt car.

"Yeah they are a lot smarter than they say they are kid and that's way you need to not believe everything you hear" Jayson replies as they move across the street well everyone else cover them. "After this mission you'll find that most of the creatures of the Wasteland are completely different from what you thought they were"

"I hope not ever wise we will never reclaim the Wasteland from them" Dean says shaking his head.

"You know you worry too much kid" Jayson says with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah as long as we can kill them we can beat them" Nathan adds as he also starts to laugh.

"I guess you two are right about that" Dean replies as he also lets out a slight giggle.

"Come on we have a schedule to keep people" Alex calls back. "Also stop laughing before they hear us"

"Yes sir" The three Paladins reply as they pick up the pace and re-join Alex and Sam.

They carry on walking for nearly half an hour and nearly make it out of the city when they come across a newly constructed super mutant camp. It is a circle of cars next to the only way out of the city. Inside the circle are two small shacks made of metal sheets over a wooden frame with a pile of dead Brahmin in-between. There are only three Super mutants inside the camp. Two of them are armed with hunting rifles and the other with a Combat shotgun.

"We have to take them out there is no way to sneak by them" Alex says as everyone gathers around him. "Here's the plan, Nathan and I will move to an upper floor of the build across the street. Sam will lead Dean and Jayson in a frontal assault on the camp and you will clear out the two shacks everyone got it?"

"Yes" Everyone says with a nod.

"Alright Nathan follow me and everyone else stay here tile I give the order to attack" Alex says before he and Nathan move and disappear in the building across the street. Dean stays stacked up against the building in-between Sam and Jayson. He readies his laser rifle and pistol as he waits. A minute later Alex is back on the radio. "Move up towards the camp but don't fire unless they see you until I fire"

Dean, Sam and Jayson crawl towards the camp keeping as low as possible to avoid detection from the mutants. They make it all the way to the camp entrance without being seen. Sam uses hand sign's to order Dean and Jayson to stop them; they then wait for Alex's first shot to begin their assault.

* * *

**Alex Franco P.O.V**

* * *

Alex looks through the scoop of his Gauss rifle taking aim at the Super mutant with the shotgun. He places the crosshairs on the mutants head before pulling the trigger. His shot rings out signalling the assault to begin and turning his target into a pile of ash. As Alex quickly reloads his rifle he sees Nathan open fire with his Gatling laser cutting down both the other mutants and turning them into a bloody mess scattered all over the dead Brahmin. Sam and her team quickly rush into the camp with Jayson shooting a mutant exiting one of the shacks in the head covering the door with blood and brain. Sam's team immediately start to clear the camp with Jayson searching one shack and Dean the other while Sam walks around outside checking for any hidden mutant when Sam's team regroup at the camps entrance Alex assumes the job is done.

"Good work we'll regroup at the camp entrance" Alex says over the radio and was just about to leave when Nathan shouts and opens fire.

"Alex, we got more coming from the road!" Nathan shouts as her turns a mutant into ash. Alex looks out to see three other mutants attacking the camp. They are all armed with hunting rifles.

"Super mutants are attacking from the road take them out!" Alex orders over the radio as he puts a laser into a mutants head tearing it clean off its body. The rest of the fire fight is short lived as Nathan takes down one of the two remaining mutants with a hail of bullets while Sam's team turns the other one into ash before Alex has a chance to reload. "Alright now the area is clear Sam's team take cover me and Nathan are on are way"

"Nice shooting you two" Sam says as they regroup.

"Yeah nice shooting but you could have saved some fore us" Jayson adds.

"We will next time now let's get moving before more show up" Alex says as he turns towards the road. "Good job everyone that went very smoothly"

* * *

**The Forest**

**Erica Hartmann P.O.V**

* * *

After walking all morning the witches and only now have just reached the outskirts of the forest. The trees were gigantic oak trees and their trucks were thicker than anything Erica has ever seen before. The tops of the trees are covered in thick green foliage and as they walk by one of the fallen leafs to the ground it is bigger than Erica. The grass in the woods still comes up to the girl's waist but at least it isn't as thick as the grass in the field and is only getting less and less thicker and taller as they proceed into the forest.

"Finally I thought we would never make it" Erica says as they enter the forest. "It never looked this far away from the factory roof"

"We still need to find a safe place to camp for the night so we can't rest yet" Minna tells them looking over her shoulder.

"Why can't we just camp here?" Erica moans.

"Because we are on a slope and exposed here" Gertrud tells her. "Those machines can easily spot us here"

"Then we will just smash them up again" Erica replies.

"No because they will use their lasers to pick us off from a distance if we set up camp here because the field is completely open" Gertrud counters.

"Fine let's get going" Erica says with a sigh as she stares at the ground.

The witches move deeper into the forest until the grassy ground turns into dirt covered ground covered with large roots. The roots are a nightmare as they block the gaps between the trees and the deeper in they go the more the forest turns into a maze. The forest is darker than Erica thought it would be as the thick foliage blocks out the sun. Pretty soon it becomes impossible to walk any further into the forest. The trees and roots block the way forward and with the light that manages to get through to the ground it is impossible to see where you are going.

"Great now what are we going to do?" Erica says as she slumps against a nearby tree trunk.

"We are going to move north until we find a way through or a place to camp" Minna says as she looks south and north along the wall of trees and roots.

"Can we have a quick break my feet are killing me?" as she sits down against another tree and starts rubbing her feet.

"Yeah mine too" Eila says as she sits down next to Shirley. "We really need to find some shoes if we are going to be traveling long distances like this"

"Ok but we need to get moving soon before we loss the sun" Minna agrees as she also sits down. "We'll keep an eye out for any footwear"

Erica sits against the tree using her hand to brush of the layer of dirt that has built up on her feet. Everyone is exhausted from hiking all morning and now the forest they thought would shelter them has turned into a dark maze stopping their forward progress. Their journey is only getting harder and harder with no end in sight.

What's up with this forest anyway? Erica can't help but think. She's seen forests before and none of them looked like this, had trees as tall and thick as the ones here or as dark as the forest she's wandering through now. How old is this forest? Erica wonders. She knows this forest must be old to have trees like these growing here. Also the leaves on the trees were bigger than Erica. Never before had she seen any petal or leaf bigger than her before. These trees must be really old Erica thinks.

* * *

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

The witches were back on the move and walk alongside the wall of trees with Minna and Sakamoto leading the way. The tree wall was still impenetrable for the witches. They have been climbing up a gentle hill for the last few minutes and have only now reaching the top of it. On the other side of the hill is a green valley with a waterfall feeding into a river, the forest gives away to another grass field but on the top of the other hill is a line of dead trees that look like they were burnt.

Along the river is an old two floor wooden building that is missing its roof, a waterwheel is still attached to the side slowly turning in the river. All of the windows and doors of the building are missing and only the stakes of the wooden fence still remain. The building also looks like it was on fire at one point as the side face that Minna is facing is all scorched.

"Alright everyone we are going to spend the night in that house over there" Minna says as she points out the wooden building to the others. "Gertrude, Shirley you two go and make sure it's safe and we'll stay here and watch your back"

"We get right on it" Gertrud replies as she and Shirley move up towards the building. They walk along a small stone wall keeping low in case they are attacked. They appear to be the only people in the area and Minna can't sense anything using her magic but then again she never sensed those machines in the factory so sending those two to scout it out will be the best thing to do right now.

"Do you see anything Mio" Minna asks.

"No but I there are plenty of places to hide here" Sakamoto replies looking around. "Do you think that waters drinkable?"

"I don't know" Minna answers while she shakes her head. "We'll have to check it out later"

"I hope it is because those bottles will only last a day or two" Sakamoto states.

"Yeah I know but you never know that house might have running water" Minna replies.

* * *

**Charlotte E. Yeager "Shirley" P.O.V**

* * *

Shirley and Gertrud make it to the house without a problem. The house is the only building still standing here as only the foundations of two other buildings remain. From the looks of it they were both burnt down as burnt wood is scattered over the foundation. The wooden building also looks like it was once on fire but unlike the other two remained standing.

"It looks clear let's go inside" Shirley says as she jumps over the wall and runs to looking through the missing front door.

"That was reckless we should of circled the building first behind that wall before walking up to the door" Gertrud tells her as she stacks up against the other side of the door and also looks inside.

"Yeah but I'm sure we would of heard something if anyone was here" Shirley replies as she walks inside.

The inside of the building is empty, the wooden floor creaks under Shirley's feet as she walks inside and the second floor is missing leaving only the stairs clinging to the wall. Looking up Shirley sees the blue sky and sun high above her. There are only two rooms left other than the one Shirley's standing in, a storage room and what appears to be a kitchen.

"Well this room is clear, go check the room over there while I check the other room" Gertrud says as she enters the building.

"Yes ma'am" Shirley says with a mocking salute and smile.

Shirley walks into the kitchen and hears Gertrud grunt in frustration at her mocking. The kitchen is just as barren as the other room with only a counter, oven and a tall fridge present in the room. Shirley walks up to the fridge and opens it. There is only two bottles on the bottom shelve. The bottles both contain a brown liquid which bobbles each time Shirley moves the bottle. There's a red label on the bottle with the letters faded but when Shirley looks at it closer she can make out the name Nuka-Cola.

"Find anything useful?" Gertrud asks as she comes into the kitchen.

"Just two bottles of something called Nuka-Cola" Shirley answers as she shows the two bottles to Gertrud. "How about you did you find anything?"

"I found five cans of food but the labels have ever gone missing or expired so I don't know what's inside and I found this shotgun" Gertrud says pulling out a double-barreled shotgun and placing it on the side. "Unfortunately I only found six shells for it"

"While it's still better than my axe and the two knifes we have already" Shirley says picking up the shotgun and examining it. "At least we have some fire power now"

"Yeah and I also found a radio that still works" Gertrud add taking the shotgun back. "Go tell the others that it's safe"

"Sure thing" Shirley says as she walks to the window and shouts out of it. "Hey guys its safe so come on down here!"

"Why do you have to be so loud?" Gertrud asks shaking her head in disapproval. "Someone could have heard you just then"

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?" Shirley asks. "That way we can find out where we are and what has happened"

"Yes if they don't try and kill us first" Gertrud replies. "We don't know who did this to the world and whoever did this could of heard you just than"

"All well it's too late now" Shirley says with a shrug of her shoulders.

* * *

**Sanya V. Litvyak P.O.V**

* * *

Sanya was sat with Eila, Lynne and Yoshika outside watching the sunset and the creature Shirley killed earlier cook. It was Minna's idea to cook that animal before they open the can food. Yoshika and Lynne wasn't sure how to cook it so Eila ended up skinning and gutting the animal for them and setting it up on a spit over a fire that Sanya had set. They have been watching it cook ever since hopping that they will be able to tell when it's done.

The setting sun lights up the sky in a red and orange glow as it sets over the grassy hill. The first stars are starting to light up in the sky and a full moon rises behind the mountain. The night sky is luckily clear as the witches are sleeping without a roof over their heads in that building. For the first time in ages Sanya feels cold as the night blows in. it is such a relief to be cold after being in the scorching heat back at the base.

"Hey if you're cold you can move closer to the fire" Eila says as Sanya shivers slightly.

"No I'm fine" Sanya replies. "It feels good to be cold after that heat wave and it reminds me of home"

"Well just make sure you don't catch a cold ok" Eila says.

"Don't worry I won't" Sanya answers. "I think you should tell Minna about your vision now I seen her alone walking by the wall earlier"

"Yeah I'll go speak with her but first" Eila says turning to Yoshika. "I think that thing is done"

"Oh I get it" Yoshika says as she moves over to the fire followed by Lynne.

"I'll go find Minna and tell her" Eila says as she gets up and turns back to Sanya "Make sure Yoshika doesn't drop that thing in the fire"

"Ok see you soon Eila" Sanya says before Eila walks off towards Minna who's sat on the stone wall watching the setting sun.

* * *

**Highway 24**

**Dean Camron P.O.V**

* * *

Dean and his squad managed to get out of the ruined city and walk down the highway without any more problems but now they have to turn off the highway and walk over a large hill to get to the raider camp they have to take out. Once they get over this hill they just need to cross a river to get to the ridge where they will plan their attack from.

The fight in the city has put them behind schedule and the sun has nearly set. The moon has already risen and stars are starting to appear as the temperature drops rapidly. Within seconds Dean can see the white mist of his breath in front of his face.

"Hey wait, what's that light over there?" Nathan asks aiming his weapon in the direction of a distance glow.

"Ignore it probably a roaming trader camping for the night" Alex says as he looks at the glow through the scoop of his rifle. "They don't seem armed so let's keep moving"

Dean and his squad carry on to cross the river and to enter the forest. This forest is growing fast because of the G.E.C.K accident in the nearby factory. The Brotherhood tried improving the G.E.C.K or Garden of Eden Creation Kit five years ago causing the plants and trees in the surrounding area to grow incredibly fast turning the dead forest filled with burnt trees into a thick forest with gigantic oak trees ten times the size of any other tree. It's lucky that the G.E.C.K had a limited range ever wise this forest would have consumed the entire Wasteland within a month.

It isn't hard to navigate the forest even in complete darkness thanks to the Scribes and Knights work on restoring old technology. They recently rediscovered night vision and built it into the helmets. Now when they should see complete darkness they see perfectly fine and can easily move through the forest. Ten minutes later they reach the ridge overlooking the clearing where the raider camp is located.


	4. Journey Onwards

**By the River**

**Mio Sakamoto P.O.V**

* * *

"What do you think?" Minna asks after she finished telling the Major about Eila's vision.

"Do you really think it her vision means anything?" Sakamoto asks in reply "She's never had a vision before and I don't really believe in sprites anyway"

"I know you don't but she seems sure about what she seen and believe it could help us so I think we should consider speaking with the Brotherhood of Steel if we come across them at any point" Minna replies not sounding sure whether or not that is the right decision. "What do you think?"

"While I think we should we should try and learn more about this Brotherhood before we act" Sakamoto answers as music start to play coming from the wooden building where the others witches are. "While I guess Shirley fixed the radio"

"While it's getting cold so we should head back" Minna says as she gets up. "Come on and you never know but this Brotherhood might be mentioned on the radio"

"Fine I never thought I'd miss the boiling heat this much" Sakamoto says as she also gets up.

"Yeah me ever, but I wish it wasn't this cold though" Minna replies with a smile as she and Sakamoto walk towards the building and sound of music. "I think I recognize this song"

"Yeah me too it's "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire"" Sakamoto says as the course starts to play.

"Yeah that's it, I haven't heard this song in a while" Minna tells Sakamoto as they walk into the building.

Everyone sits there listing to the song in silence as it reminds them of home and their last sight of their burning base. Every one of the witches has heard this song before but this is the first time they really listened to it. Before they would talk amongst themselves as the song played in the background but right now they can't help but listen to it. As the song end the witches still remain silent as the man hosting the radio show begins to speak. Their thoughts are still of home and some of the girls have tears in their eyes, most are sitting with their heads down feeling homesick and remembering happy times with their families. The man on the radio begins with a howl getting everyone's attention, never before have they heard a man howl over the radio. It makes everyone turn and pay attention to his voice as he begins to read the news.

"This just in the Enclave has launched a new offensive in the Flatlands forcing the NCR into retreat and capturing Saltlake City and the mining town of Cliften" The man says. "The NCR sent reinforcements in time to hold them at the Canyon Bridge but the situation is shaky. More troops are being sent to the front line but thankfully the Enclave show no signs of attacking buying our brave troops some much needed breathing space" Everyone's attention is on the radio as they try and catch every word he says, they are here of fractions and places they never heard of before. Most are in shock but some witches are unaffected by the news. "This is Three Dog wishing the NCR good look along the front line against those murdering Enclave all the way from the Capital Wasteland"

"I never heard of the Enclave or the NCR before" Lucchini says.

"Yeah me never" Shirley says and gives a slight pause before adding. "And I never heard of any of those places that were mentioned ever"

"The Enclave also launched another assault on the Capital Wasteland but the valiant efforts of the Brotherhood of Steel's Knights and Paladins quickly pushed those sons of bitches back. Thanks to our brothers and sisters in power armour the Enclave was defeated in less than an hour of combat" The strange howling man called Three Dog continues his report. "Once again thanks to the Brotherhood of Steel the Capital Wasteland remains free and safe from the horrors of the Enclave"

"While the Brotherhood doesn't sound too bad maybe your right and we should speak with them" Sakamoto quietly says.

"Yeah but now we need to find them" Minna says as she wonders how on earth they will find them.

"Our savours in power armour are leading the fight against the Enclave and the way to freedom across the Wasteland so make sure to thank them the next time you come across them" Three Dog says as Minna and Sakamoto starts listen again. "This is Tree Dog signing off but not before one last song from me to you. This is Mighty, Mighty Man coming at you from all the way in the Capital Wasteland"

"Well maybe we could ask Three Dog, he probably knows where they are" Minna says as she thinks about it. "Someone probably knows where the Capital Wasteland is and when we get there we can ask someone there where to find Three Dog"

"Sounds like a plan" Sakamoto replies with a yawn. "We should probably get some sleep and leave at dawn if we are going to find someone to ask"

* * *

**The Forest**

**Alex Franco P.O.V**

* * *

Alex is lying down on the ridge scanning the raider camp with the scoop of his Gauss rifle making mental notes of the raiders positions. They have ten tents set up in a circle around a camp fire. Both of their dogs are trapped inside a cage on a badly built wagon. Most of the raiders are sitting around the campfire dinking, joking loudly and two are having an arm wrestling contest. Alex has seen enough and crawls back to the others. He finds his squad sat in a nest of roots hidden from the Raider camp and the rest of the wasteland, they are sat quietly waiting for Alex to return. They look at him as he joins them waiting for him to brief them on their battle plan.

"Alright here's the plan most of the raiders are grouped together around the camp fire, Nathan hind in the tree line to the right and take them out" Alex says, Nathan nods and is most likely smiling under his helmet. "Sam, Jayson, Dean you three spread out along the left and target anything that moves. I'll stay up on the ridge and proved sniper support"

"Let's get this show on the road" Nathan says as he gives his gun a tap.

"Wait for my signal" Alex tells everyone. "I'll send the Eye Bot behind them to cause a distraction, fire as soon as the Eye Bot"

Everyone moves into position and Alex back to the ridge where he just scouted the Raider camp from. He lays down in the dirt and looks down his scoop checking the Raiders are still where he last saw them, after checking the camp he tapes commands into the pad on his wrist which send the Eye Bot to the other side of the camp. Alex once again looks down his scoop looking for a target, he finds it when his crosshairs rest on the Raider leader. The Raider leader is wearing a white blood and mud stained T-shirt, football shoulder pads, black trousers and boots that are caped with mud. On his head he is wearing a dear skull, a mark of authority amongst the Raiders and strapped to his hip is a .32 pistol and a Hatchet. He's walking around the camp with a limp most likely caused by an old injury, with several scares covering his face and body he certainly looks like he has had a tough battling life. Alex keeps his crosshairs aimed in-between his eyes as the Eye Bot fires a laser beam into the camp, the shot missed and explodes in the camp fire making everyone around it jump. Before anyone can react Alex pulls the trigger, his shot rips through the Raider leaders head and turns him to ash that scatters in the breeze.

Now all hell breaks loose. Nathan opens fire with his Gatling laser cutting on Raider in half as he looks frantically around for the shoot, he turns the man next to him to ash and tears another apart with laser fire as he runs for cover. The rest all dive for cover, the two having an arm wrestling contest are both cut down by laser fire and turn to ask. From what Alex can see there are only three Raiders still left alive, but he changes that to two when he lines up a shot on an old lady with dirt filled winkles and long grey hair, he kills her with a single shot to the head that decapitates her. The remaining two Raider quickly fall, they are gunned down by a hail of laser fire as they try to run away. Alex scans the camp with the scoop of his rifle and sees no signs of life, even the dogs have been killed in the cage. But just because he can't see nothing doesn't mean the camp is safe, his experience fighting the Legion has taught him that the hard way.

"Sam, Jayson, Dean, move up and search the camp, be careful and watch out for ambushes and booby-traps" I order over the radio. "Nathan you and I are going to cover them so keep your eyes open"

"Understood, Jayson, Dean on me" Sam replies and I quickly see her approaching the camp. They move from cover to cover keeping their weapons raised, they advance slowly but steadily keeping each other covered but nearly as soon as they enter the camp its clear every one of the Raiders are dead. "Sir the Camp is clear"

"Ok me and Nathan will stay here and cover you" I tell her. "I want you three to search the camp for the drone"

"I believe it's already been moved" Sam replies looking down at something. "There are drag marks on the ground and we saw nothing like it in any of the tents we searched"

"Great, everyone regroup at the camp fire" I order as I stand up. "It looks like this mission will be longer than expected"

* * *

**By the River**

**Yoshika Miyafuji P.O.V**

* * *

While everyone slept Yoshika lays awake staring at the stars through a hole in the ceiling, they look so bright in the night sky and provide some comfort to her. The truth is Yoshika can't sleep because she misses home, while she watched the others find slumber she was unable to join them no matter how hard she tried. Every time she tried to close her eyes and sleep images of her home, family and cousin Michiko. Seeing them made her feel sad and left her wanting to see them, to talk to them. She couldn't sleep with all that so she just looked up at the sky and hoped she would fall asleep, she knows she has to sleep and tomorrow will be a tiring day but she just can't fall asleep. Finally though she gave up and quietly walked outside trying not to wake the others, but unknown to her another witch couldn't sleep and she watches Yoshika leave.

Yoshika walks outside and sits by the by the fire which is still burning and given off warmth, despite the warmth of the fire the cold night wind still makes Yoshika shiver. She looks at the dying flames of the fire and thinks of the winters she spent back home sat by the fire wither family and on her father's lap. Tears start to run down the Yoshika's cheeks as they always do when she remembers her father, she remembers his smile, his laugh and even the way he used to drive her crazy but she knows deep down he will never do any of those things again. She knows he's gone for good and nothing can bring him back, she thought she accepted his death and moved on focused on keeping her last promise to him but still she cries whenever she thinks of him. She stares into the flames morning and remembering her father unware of the witch standing behind her, the one that saw her leave quietly followed her but seeing her like this makes her hesitate to ask what's wrong, she has no idea what to say to her so she remains silent for now. Yoshika senses her stood behind her though she turns around and comes face to face with the witch that followed her.

"You couldn't sleep ever" Yoshika says as she wipes away her tears.

"No" Sanya replies with a shake of her head.

"Is it because you are used to being up at night?" Sanya nods in reply. "You can sit with me if you want" Yoshika says patting the space beside her, without a word Sanya sits down and stares at the flames. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine" Sanya quietly replies as she watches the flames of the fire go out, with a few pokes and adding more wood Sanya quickly brings the fire back to life. "Are you ok? I saw you crying"

"I'm fine I just miss home" Yoshika answers staring into the flames and feeling warm just by looking at them.

* * *

**The Next Morning**

**Lynette Bishop "Lynne" P.O.V**

* * *

Lynne woke up expecting to see her friend Yoshika laying fast asleep next her but all she sees is an empty space where her friend was meant to be. She sits up and sees everybody else still fast asleep apart from Sanya who's also nowhere to be seen and Eila who is looking around for something, most likely Sanya. Lynne slowly gets to her feet her limbs stiff from her night spent sleeping on the floor, she rubs sleep out of her eyes and walks over to Eila who is starting to look sick with worry. Lynne tip toes her way over to worried Suomus who looks like she is about to tear this room apart to find her Orussian friend careful not to wake and stand on the others. She reaches the worried witch just as she was looking under a ruined sofa which is clearly too small for Sanya to fit under, Eila made sure that Sanya had the sofa to sleep on last night and her worried state of mind must have led her to believe that Sanya somehow ended up underneath it.

"Eila are you ok?" Lynne whispers so the others won't wake up. "You look worried"

"I'm not ok Sanya is missing" Eila replies clearly worried for her friend. "She must have slept walked again. Where could she have gone to this is a strange place to use so she could be lost, hurt, trapped or even killed"

"Eila please calm down I'm sure she's fine" Lynne pleads with the Suomus who looks like she's on the verge of a panic attack. "She isn't in here so les look outside before we wake everyone else up"

"Ok" Eila says calming down but still worried out of her mind over her lost friend. "Let's find her before something bad happens"

Lynne and Eila quietly exit the room and soon Eila freezes in her tracks, Lynne looks over Eila's shoulder and quickly finds out why. Yoshika and Sanya are both fast asleep by the burnt out fire, they are laid close together and one Yoshika's is on top of Sanya's chest like it normally does when Lynne and her share a bed. Lynne stares at them feeling a little jealous of Sanya but more worried about her friend. Lynne can feel Eila's anger and jealousy boiling over and knows her friend is in real danger, Eila is very proactive of Sanya and seeing Yoshika's hand on Sanya's chest is going to be Yoshika's death sentence. Lynne knows she hasn't got long before Eila explodes and is about to step in and do something when the situation takes a turn for the worst, Yoshika squeezes one of Sanya's breasts in her sleep and Sanya lets out a soft, quiet moan. That's the last straw for Eila and Lynne knows it, Lynne see's Eila clench her fists and watches helplessly as Eila storm over to the two sleeping witches.

"DON'T TOUCH SANYA LIKE THAT!" Eila shouts full of anger as she throws Yoshika off her now startled friend. Sanya jumps up to her feet ready to fight must likely thinking those machines are back, Yoshika on the other hand stays down where she lands holding her side.

"Eila" Sanya says as she realises what is happening.

"Don't worry Sanya you are safe now" Eila tells her friend in a caring voice before turning to face Yoshika, her voice changes to one that scares Yoshika to death and makes Lynne feel for her friends life. "HOW DARE YOU TOUCH SANYA LIKE THAT!?"

"I didn't do anything I swear" Yoshika replies siting up, she is scared out of her mind and waving her arms around in front of her face.

"YOU WERE GROPING SANYA WHILE SHE SLEPT!" Eila yells at her as she storms toward the already terrified Yoshika.

"Eila please stop she didn't mean to" Lynne pleas with her but her words fall on deaf ears, Eila lost in rage continues stomping towards Yoshika. "Eila she moved in her sleep it was an accident"

"Eila please stop" The soft quiet voice of Sanya sounding scared and weak begs, it does the trick as Eila instantly stops in her tacks and turns back around. Lynne turns around to and see Sanya staring terrified at the unfolding scene. "Eila that's enough like Lynne said it was an accident"

"But Sanya this little pervert was groping you while you slept" Eila says sound like a little kid in trouble with their parents.

"She was asleep" Sanya tells her. "She didn't do it on purpose"

"What's going on out here?" Minna suddenly calls out as she emerges from the house, all the witches present as terrified as Yoshika was when she was just about to face Eila's wrath. There's one thing that everyone in the 501st fears and that is Minna when she's angry, her punishments where always strict and unpleasant. Everyone turns to face her and see Barkhorn and Sakamoto rushing towards them following just behind Minna, everyone else in the squad watches from the windows and door way of the ruined house.

"Um… Commander Minna we were… We were" Elia stutters trying to think of a way to explain this to Minna that wouldn't get her into trouble.

"Eila attack Yoshika" Sanya quietly tells Minna and in an instant Lynne can she Eila stare to grow a beard of sweat. Sanya can't lie, everyone knows she always tells the truth and it doesn't surprise anyone to hear her say that.

"Is that true Eila?" Minna asks looking at Eila who looks like she wants to disappear. Eila nods and Minna turns her attention to Yoshika. "Are you ok Yoshika?"

"I'm fine" Yoshika replies getting back up on her feet.

"Ok Eila since we haven't got time to punish you properly" Minna tells her and Eila looks like she is made of sweat with the amount of it covering her body. "Your punishment will have to be carrying all our supplies is that understood?"

"Yes ma'am" Eila replies sighing with relief that she isn't receiving one of the ordinary punishments Minna dishes out.

"What was the fight about?" Minna asks looking around.

"Yoshika and Sanya slept by the fire last night and while they slept Yoshika groped Sanya" Lynne answers hopping her confection want get Yoshika into trouble and again feeling jealous that she wasn't in Sanya's place. "Eila attacked her after seeing that"

* * *

**Strike Witches Universe**

**Ruins of the 501st Joint Fighter Wings Base**

**Hanna-Justina Marseille P.O.V**

* * *

The 501st Joint Fight Wings Base is still smouldering when Hanna arrives in the ruins, smoke of the dying fires still fills the sky and not a single building is left standing. She is flying here to meet with the General of the Witch Corps Air Marshal Adolfine Galland, she is examining the base and disappearance of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing. She says she has found something important but won't say what expect in person, Hanna and a select few witches have been ordered to meet her in the bases ruins. Hanna's plane is just touching down on the runway after a long flight, the runway managed to survive intact and has been cleared of derby allowing the transport plane to land safely. Hanna exits the plane and is greeted by a small crowd of people, Air Marshal Adolfine Galland is in front of the group and behind her are mostly strangers apart from one face Ursula Hartmann, her friends Erica's twin sister. But the rest are strangers, they come from all over the world but none of them are anyone Hanna knows.

"Flight Lieutenant Marseille please join the others and I will begin" Air Marshal Adolfine Galland instructs as Hanna walks over to her.

"Yes ma'am" Hanna replies taking her place in line beside Ursula, Hanna doesn't normal like authority and calling others ma'am or sir but she knows when she must do just that.

"Ok as you are all aware of the 501st have been attacked and all members are missing" Air Marshal Adolfine Galland says beginning her briefing. "But what you don't know is that there was a strange signal detected by several radar stations across Britannia and on board all the warships in the area" Everyone looks at her wondering what this signal is but its Ursula who puts in words what everyone is thinking.

"Does this signal have anything to do with the disappearance of the 501st?" Ursula asks and everyone goes quiet waiting for an answer.

"Yes we believe it does" Air Marshal Adolfine Galland answers. "At the same time this signal was detected we lost contact with the Strike Witches" There's a few words exchanged between the witches at hearing this news Air Marshal Adolfine Galland waits for everyone to finish before she continues. "But they weren't alone in the sky at the time, they were fighting a Neuroi when this happened and that Neuroi is still out there. It was still in the sky after the 501st went missing and is somewhere in Britannia"

"And you want us to hunt it down right" Hanna asks thinking of no other reason why she is here.

"Yes we can't let a Neuroi that can take out a whole squad of skilled witches live if we want to win this war" Air Marshal Adolfine Galland replies making the situation sound direr. "You are going to locate and destroy this Neuroi before another squad goes missing"

* * *

**Fallout Universe**

**One Hour Later**

**By the River**

**Sanya V. Litvyak**

* * *

The 501st has been on the move for an hour now having only a small breakfast beans from one of the cans Barkhorn found, everyone is still hungry but Minna says we have to save the food and that we may not find any more any time soon. They have been following the river downstream from the ruined house hoping to find someone who can help us, Minna and Sakamoto has a plan to find the Brotherhood of Steel mainly due to Eila's vision so their hope is to find someone how can point them in the right direction. The weather has been good this morning, it's sunny without a cloud in sight and there's a cooling breeze gentle blowing through the air. Sanya is walking at the back of the group with Eila who is weighed down with the weight of supplies she is being forced to carry after assaulting Yoshika, Sanya has been staying beside her friend as they walked onwards and together the look around and take in the scenery.

"It is strange how one side of this river is green and full of life while the other side is dead" Sanya quietly says as she looks from one side of the river to the other, on the side the witches are on is a thick forest and grassy fields and on the other is a scorched Earth with dead trees and craters covering the landscape.

"Yeah something really bad must have happened on that side" Eila replies with a grunt as she feels the weight of the supplies she is carrying.

"Are you ok Eila?" Sanya asks noticing her friend is struggling to carry the supplies alone. "I can help you carry the supplies if you need me to"

"I can't" Eila tells her friend with a shake of her head. "This is my punishment and having you carry some of the load will only get you in trouble"

* * *

**Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V**

* * *

"Yoshika are you sure you are ok?" Barkhorn asks Yoshika for the millionth time in the last hour.

"Yes I'm fine" Yoshika answers starting to get fed up with the constant questioning. "You don't have to worry about me"

"Eila had no right to treat you that way" Barkhorn tells her, she's been saying this too over and over again ever since they took off. The truth is Barkhorn is worried because of the fact Yoshika could pass for her little sister Chris, every time she sees Yoshika hurt she sees Chirrs hurt not Yoshika and like right now she has to struggle not to tear whoever hurt her apart. Eila is lucky Barkhorn has such good self-control otherwise there would have been a second fight this morning. "It was an accident and even if it was true what she said it still wouldn't have gave her the right to assault you like that"

"It's ok Barkhorn" Yoshika says doing her best to smile but because of the constant repeated question she is struggling to smile. "Eila apologised and I forgave her"

"But she flung across the garden and hurt you" Barkhorn again tells her still not understanding how she can just forgive someone that hurt you so quickly.

"Barkhorn Yoshika forgave her" Lynne tells her seeing her friend becoming more frustrated under the continual questioning. "Can you just let it go, it will be best for everyone if the incident is just forgotten"

"But…"

"Barkhorn that's enough" Lynne snaps completely out of character for her. "Just forget it… Please"

"Ok" Barkhorn replies defeated by Lynne's sudden and surprising words, she never knew Lynne to talk to anyone like that, at least without ending it with an "I'm sorry". Barkhorn gives up and watches Lynne lead Yoshika away from her, seeing no point in going after them she moves to walk with Erica.

"Looks like you made Lynne mad" Erica says as Barkhorn reaches her side, Barkhorn sighs releasing that her friend my not have been the best person to walk beside. ""How did you do that I have never seen Lynne mad before?"

"I don't know" Barkhorn replies not really wanting to talk to any one right now.

* * *

**Francesca Lucchini P.O.V**

* * *

"Come on Shirley keep up" Lucchini cheerfully says as she skips a head through the long grass that goes up to her chest. Shirley and Lucchini have been sent ahead of the group to scout out their route, Lucchini seems as cheerful as always skipping through the long grass and twirling around so she can see everything around her. "Come on Shirley maybe we will find something cool and interesting"

"Slow down Franny we don't know what's out here" Shirley replies trying to keep up with her cheerful friend. "You need to stay by myside"

"Why there a lot to see out here" Lucchini moans as she slows down. "There could be new bugs out there to see, new foods to taste and new trees to climb"

"We will find them but we need to make sure we are alive when we do" Shirley tells her wondering how she can be so care free when she's lost in a strange world and was newly killed yesterday. "Anyway… Why do you want to see bugs, can't you leave them alone like most people do"

"Nope" Lucchini replies with a big grin. "They are too interesting to look and it's fun to watch people find the one's I planted in their beds"

"I…Lucchini get down there something over there" Shirley says noticing smoke coming over a nearby hill. "Lucchini stay here will I go check it out"

"Ok" Lucchini response with a nod as she lies down in the tall grass completely hiding herself. Lucchini watches Shirley prepare the shotgun Barkhorn found yesterday and slowly move up towards the hill top, Shirley stays low as she moves and when she reaches the top of the hill she crawls on her belly and disappears from Lucchini's view. She doesn't return Lucchini starts to worry as minutes pass with no sign of Shirley, finally she gives up on waiting and decides to follow after her friend and find her. She crawls up the same path she saw Shirley use and tries to stay hidden in case anything dangerous is up there, she crawls up the top of the hill and quickly spots her friend. She spots Shirley hiding in a group of rocks and wastes no time in crawling to join her. "Shirley what did you find?"

"Lucchini" Shirley replies as she jumps a little, but her face quickly starts to look mad. "Lucchini I told you to stay where you were"

"But I got worried" Lucchini tells her which seems to make her less mad at the very least. "You were gone for some time"

"It's ok Lucchini" Shirley tells her looking back towards the smoke, Lucchini looks too and see what appears to be a town with smoke rising from the chimneys of the houses. "I was just looking at the town and trying to find the best way to it"

"Are you sure we should go down there?" Lucchini asks. "They might be bad people"

"Commander Minna wants to make contact with people" Shirley replies still looking at the town. "We have to speak with them if we want to find out where we are, what happened and if we want the help we so desperately need"

"Ok" Lucchini says sounding nervous as she start to worry that the people in the town might be bad people.

"Don't worry Franny everything will be ok" Shirley says rubbing Lucchini's head.

* * *

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

"Well there the town we spotted" Shirley tells Minna who joins her and Lucchini on the hill top, she is joined with Barkhorn, Sakamoto and Erica and together everyone stares at the town. "I couldn't spot anyone but smoke is raising from the chimneys so I think there is people down there"

"Well they are the first people we seen" Sakamoto says looking at the town. "Do you still want to talk with them or should we try and get a better look before we go"

"No we should go and speak with them" Minna decides after looking around at the surrounding area. "There is no way to scout out the town without being spotted, we should just go as a group and hope they are friendly"

* * *

**The Forest**

**Dean Camron P.O.V**

* * *

"The drag marks are about to leave the forest" Sam points out, she has been on point following the drag marks and broken foliage. The path was an easy path to follow but it went on for several hours forcing the squad to walk through the night.

"Well it look like they took it to their main camp in the area, that's the only place they could have taken it to" Alex says. "It is heavily guarded so we will only go if the group decides we should, all those in favour"

"I'm built to fight large amounts of enemy's I'm in" Nathan answers pounding his fist on his chest.

"I say we do it" Jayson tells the group. "There's no one we can't beat"

"I agree" Sam agrees. "We can do this"

"Well Dean how about you?" Alex asks.

"I'm in" Dean answers feeling confident that they can do this. "We can do this"

* * *

**Ten Minutes Later**

**Town Outskirts**

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

"Everyone stay close and keep you guard up" Minna orders as they approach the town. "We don't know these people or if we can trust it, I'll do the talking"

Everyone agrees and follows her lead as she guides them into the town, they still can't see anyone but they can hear people talking and cows mooing. The walk at a steady pass looking around for any sign of danger, they approach unseen without seeing a single person who lives here. But it's what they first see that stops them in their tracks, it is something so strange, so wired, so unusual and so unexpected that it stops everyone in their tracks and draws everyone's attention. The see a cow with two heads, brown wrinkly skin, bright green eyes and two sets of udders. This strange cow makes everyone drop their guard and stare at it wondering what it is and if they are even on Earth any more. It's another thing that terrifies Minna, it was bad enough learning that you are trapped in the future but being trapped not even on your own planet really scares and worries her. She can't help but wonder if they will ever make it back.

"What is it?" Lucchini asks clinging to Shirley like a scared child but her eyes are filled with curiosity.

"I don't know" Shirley answers staring at whatever it is. "Some kind of cow"

"There's more than one" Erica points out as three more of those cow things joining the first on and another three can be seen grazing nearby.

"We can find out what they are when we find someone" Sakamoto tells everyone with a clap of her hands. "We should move one and find someone"

"The Majors right" Minna says. "Let keep moving"

"It rare to see strangers around here" A voice calls out and Minna looks to see a tall muscular man with tanned dirt covered skin, pale green eyes, short black hair and a rough beard. He is wearing a black long-sleeved top with a black vest on top, he is also wearing black trousers, boots, and gloves and on his head is a baseball cap. His voice is deep and confident, on his hip is a pistol and he is holding a large gun that resembles a StG 44 but is different. "So who are you?"


	5. Edgetown

**AN: Just a reminder that this town is made up and the Witches will reach places from the game in later chapters.**

* * *

**Town Outskirts**

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

"It rare to see strangers around here" A voice calls out and Minna looks to see a tall muscular man with tanned dirt covered skin, pale green eyes, short black hair and a rough beard. He is wearing a black long-sleeved top with a black vest on top, he is also wearing black trousers, boots, and gloves and on his head is a baseball cap. His voice is deep and confident, on his hip is a pistol and he is holding a large gun that resembles a StG 44 but is different. "So who are you?"

"I could ask you the same question" Minna replies standing between the man and the witches.

"I'm the sheriff of this little town" The man says keeping all of us in his field of vision. "Rory Barrett and the man behind you is my brother Tyler" I look over my shoulder to see another man I didn't notice before who's shorter than the first but other than that they look like twins, only he is carrying a pump action shotgun. "Now then can you tell me who you lot are?"

"I am Commander Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing" I tell him and he responds by aiming his gun at me and I can tell by the sound of shuffling that his brother two has his gun aimed at us. I see out the corner of my eye Shirley raise her shotgun, Trude ready her fists and Mio grip the handle of the axe.

"So who are you lot with then?" The man asks keeping his gun aimed at my head. "NCR, Enclave, Brotherhood of Steel or the Outcast?"

"Nether" I answer secretly hoping that I don't get shot for saying that, I can't show fear, if I do it will spread to my girls. "We're just lost"

"Well you picked the best place to be lost" The sheriff's brother says. "Raiders, mutts and roaming machines run freely out here killing anyone that they see one sight"

"Let me handle this" Sheriff Barrett tells his brother not taking his eyes or his off of me. "This isn't the type of place people get lost" He lowers his gun. "But I don't think you are lying" I sigh with relief as I watch his gun lower. "You don't look like you are from around me so that makes sense"

"Where are we exactly?" Mio asks from beside me.

"Edgetown" He answers sounding a little depressed. "What's left of it anyway, Raider and Mutant attacks have taken their toll of this place"

The sheriff and his brother walk off back into the town a I decide we should look around the town for information and supplies, as we walk into the town it becomes clear that the sheriff wasn't wrong when he said attacks have taken their toll on the town. The town looks like it's been bombed, buildings look like they might fall down at any minute with their windows smashed, chucks of their structures missing, fire damage and bullet holes cover the walls. The streets are covered in rubble, glass, crakes and creators and the whole place just gives off an eerie feeling. There is no one in sight other than the sheriff and his brother who I watch disappear into one of the ruined buildings, I can't believe people are living here this place looks like a death trap. I look around and feel a shiver run down my spine, this is the kind of place you read about in horror stories or tell round the campfire not something that really exists. I turn around to see this place having the same effect on everyone other than Mio who I have rarely seen scared and Eila who looks like she is in heave as Sanya cuddles up to her in fear, everyone else just ever looks scared or nervous.

"I think it's clear that none of us want to be here any longer then we have to so I think its best that we split up" I tell everyone doing my best to hide my nervousness and really wishing I could be like Mio who's able to wipe her face clear of all emotion. "We need more information about the area so go round asking people, Major can you watch over them?"

"Sure what are you doing?" Mio asks in reply not even sounding scared or nervous, ever Mio is an expert in hiding her true emotions or she really is fearless after all.

"I'm going to talk some more with the sheriff" I answer. "So does everyone know what they are doing?"

"Yes ma'am" Everyone relies in unison.

"Good now then let's get too it" I say as I turn around and start walking towards the building I saw the sheriff and his brother disappear into.

"Minna are you sure we should leave this place?" I turn to see Erica following me and stop to speak with her. "If what that man said it's dangerous out there"

"Yes but I trust Eila and think that finding the Brotherhood of Steel is our best chance of going home" I tell her but I still have my doubts about it all, Eila's predictions normally are right but this is the first time she had one like this where a sprit talked to her. "But first we need to find out more about the area so go and learn what you can"

"Ok" Erica replies walking off to join Trude who I notice is still giving Eila angry stares for what she did to Yoshika this morning, I really hope Trude can forgive her like Yoshika before this escalates into something that could tear the squad apart.

I walk into the building where I saw the sheriff and his brother entre and quickly learn that these buildings are just as bad on the inside then the outside. The walls are covered in cracks, the floor although clear of glass is covered in dust and muddy foot prints, the lights barely light the room and flicker, despite it being day outside in here its nearly as dark as if it was night. The building looks like it is a bar with tables that look like they should have been replaced years ago, chairs whose legs are broken and no longer level, the bar has several already drunk men and women lumped over and behind the bar is a broken mirror with more cracks and missing pieces then I could count. Behind the bar is an old lady who's cleaning a glass with a cloth, she doesn't look happy and her dark green eyes will make anyone shiver in fear. She's where a black short sheaved T-shirt with a white filthy apron on top that looks too tight around her chest, I can't see below her waist because of the bar but as she moves to put the glass she was cleaning away I hear her footsteps and they sound like she's wearing boots. Something about the bar women gives me the creeps and this place is a pigsty. Why would people even consider coming here to drink come here to drink?

"Because the alcohols good and cheap" A voice tells me from my side, I turn to see the sheriffs brother siting down at one of the tables with his feet up on the table and his chair resting on its two back legs. "Despite the mess the people come from all around to buy a drink here"

"Oh did I say that out loud?" I asks feeling slightly bad for insulting this place.

"You sure did" He tells me with a nod. "You're lucky my mother behind the bar didn't hear you, she's in a bad mood today and is very good at shooting that old revolver of hers"

"Does your family own this bar?" I ask him walking closer to his table.

"Yep ever since this town was founded" He answers looking at me a bit more closely. "But I have a feeling you haven't come in here to talk to me about this shit hole, so what do you want?"

"I wanted to ask a few more questions if that's alright with you?" I reply.

"Sure take a seat and ask away" He tells me as he swings his feet off of the table and his chair legs that were in the air slam down.

* * *

**Sanya V. Litvyak P.O.V**

* * *

"It's ok Sanya I'll keep you safe" Eila tells me with her arm wrapped around my shoulder as she guides me through this creepy town.

Everything is a wreck, there's nothing that doesn't look like it was about to fall down. All the people we pass by are scared and looks down, they are all wearing torn and dirty clothes that barely fit them. Every single person we pass stare at us looking depressed and making me feel nervous with their stares, I don't think I can talk with these people and I just want to get away from them out of sight. I know we are meant to be asking these people for information but I just can't, not when I'm this nervous around them and I know that if I do ask these people something no words will leave my mouth. I just walk through the town streets with Eila looking down at the ground, it's no better than the town covered in dirt, covered in creaks and I already seen several rats run away from me. How could people live like this? In buildings that could collapse on them at any minute, in dirty ruined clothes and with those strange two headed cows surrounding them. I don't think I would be able to sleep with those things nearby or in a building like the ones in this town out of fear, fear that the two headed cows might attack me in the darkness of the night and fear that the roof above may fall and crush me as I slept.

"Sanya are you ok?" Eila asks as we stop in a quiet part of the town where no one else is around.

"I'm fine" I tell her looking up for the first time since we entered the town. "I just don't like it here"

"Don't worry we will be leaving as soon as we can" Eila replies hugging me in a tight warm hug that makes all my fear go away. "As soon as we find out where the Brotherhood is we will be…" A loud bang from just around the corner gets our attention, I jump in fear out of Eila's arms at the sound and if Eila weren't of grabbed me then I would have fell to the floor. I feel my heart ponding at the sound as I look in the direction of the sound. "Are you ok?"

"Yes" I say still looking in the direction of the sound.

"What do you think that was?" Eila asks as she starts to step towards where we heard the sound.

"Don't know" I say as I stay just behind her hoping the sound we are looking for isn't something bad.

"Ow" I hear someone moan as we peek around the corner, on the ground we see a little girl about five years old at the most laying on her back and holding her forehead. Eila is quickly at her side helping the girl back up, I step closer to them but still keep my distance.

"Are you ok?" Eila asks her and the girl looks straight past her at me. She has long black messy hair tied in a braid that goes down her back, grey eyes that look full of life and like the others her clothes are torn and covered in too much mud to even tell what colour its meant to be. She smiles brightly at me which I can see bothers Eila.

"Your hairs and shins so pretty" She cheerfully says as she takes her hand off of her forehead reviling a small bruise, I can Eila is struggling not to yell at her by the way she clenches her fists so tightly it turns her knuckles white.

"Thank you" I reply looking down and blushing slightly from the complement.

"How did you get so beautiful?" The girl asks staring at me like I'm something precious to her and might disappear at any minute, like I've seen Eila stare when she doesn't think I'm not looking. I have a feeling that if this girl wasn't so young Eila would explode like she did with Yoshika this morning, she always does stuff like this and I don't understand why just like I don't understand why she would grope every other girl but me.

"Sanya's always beautiful" Eila says standing up and putting her arm around me. "I have never seen her once not looking beautiful since we first met"

"Are you her girlfriend?" She asks making Eila tense and myself blush more, what would it be like to have Eila as my girlfriend? Eila already treats me well but she still treats the other girls better by touching them and not me, she never touches me and whenever I ask her why she gets red in the face well she finds a way to avoid answering my question. Why does Eila do that that? She treats me so nicely but not like the others.

"What? No we… We are…" Eila stammers as she goes as red as a tomato in the face and starts to wave her hands around in a panic in front of her face. "We are…"

"Lover's? Fuck buddies? Married?" The girl continues to inquire and both Eila and I look at her shocked at her language, I have never heard a girl as young as her swear before.

"No… Friends… We just friends" Eila finally answers but her words sting me for some reason. Why would hearing her call me a friend hurt me? We are friends, just good friends.

"Can you be my girlfriend then?" The girl asks and now Eila finally snaps, I see her clench her fists again and her face go red with anger instead of embarrassment.

"You can't date Sanya!" Eila yells loud enough for the whole world to hear and scaring the little girl away, I watch as she runs away and hides behind a nearby wall her grey eyes peeking out at us with fear in them. It does make me happy though, for some reason seeing Eila get jealous over me makes me happy. I still feel sorry for that girl though, I hope Eila hasn't scared her for life.

"Eila I think you should apologise to her" I say watching the little girl shaking in fear behind the wall because of Eila's outburst. "I'm sure she didn't mean to make you mad"

"Fine I'll go" Eila moans but once again she does what I ask. "Where is the brat anyway?"

"Over there behind the wall cowering" I tell her nodding to the wall where the girl suddenly hides her head behind.

* * *

**Yoshika Miyafuji P.O.V**

* * *

"Lynne do you think those people over there could help us" I ask looking over to a pair of elderly women playing a game of chest under the shade of a tin sheet of metal held up by two thin stick.

"I don't know but we should ask them" Lynne replies her eyes following mine to the elderly women.

"Ok let's go" I say starting to walk over to the elderly ladies but I'm not really sure we should disturb, they look like they are having fun and I'll hate to ruin it. We walk up to the elderly ladies and as we reach their table both of them look at us with pale blue eyes that look friendly, they both have shoulder length grey hair, wrinkled faces that need to be washed and when they smile I can see that both of these ladies are missing most of their gums. I take a deep breath before I ask. "Excuses me but could we ask you a few questions?"

"What is it dears?" One of the elderly ladies asks in reply.

"I don't know if two old ladies like us will be of any help but we will see if we can" The other elderly lady says, both of them sound so friendly that I feel like I can ask them anything and they would help us.

"Who are you calling old you are ten years older than me you old hag?" The first women ask staring daggers into the other one.

"Come on meg you know you are old and grey" The second women replies lightly slapping the first elderly lady on the arm. "If you would look in a mirror for once then you would notice"

"I would but your ugly mug broke them all" The old lady called Meg snaps back.

"Um excuses me" I say trying to get their attention but my words fall on deaf ears.

"Really are you sure it wasn't you that broke them" The other women says ignoring me as if I wasn't here. "I used to be a model you know"

"Yeah and they are really grateful you ran off all of the business" Meg tells her making the old lady clench her fists, they are starting to remind me of Barkhorn and Erica the way they argue all the time but still remain friends. Hopefully these two will make up and I wonder if this is what Barkhorn and Erica would be like when they are old and grey. "You only got that job by laying on your back spread wide open for your boss in the first place"

"Yoshika" Lynne says as she tugs my sleeve, I look at her as those two start to argue over who slept with who. "I think we should leave them and find someone else to ask"

"Yeah you're…" I start to say but…

"You slut!" One of the elderly ladies shouts out getting both Lynne and mine attention and forcing us to turn back to them, Meg looks mad and the other elderly lady has a bright hand shaped mark on her cheek.

"We should go before this gets worse" Lynne says again and this time she doesn't just tug my sleeve, instead she starts to pull me away.

"Where should we go know?" I ask as I start to walk with her away from those two who I see now hugging like they made up when I look back over my shoulder.

"I think we should just walk around until we find someone else" Lynne suggests as we round a corning finally leaving those two behind who for now at least to have appeared to make up.

"Ok" I say with a nod as we walk into what appears to be a market.

There are many empty market stores, much more than the ones that are open with someone behind the counter. They are all just wooden tables that have chunks missing from their wood, lean to one side due to their legs not being level, covered with dust as well as what they are selling and like the rest of the town looks like they could fall down at any minute. They are all selling strange things that I have never seen before and from the look on Lynne's face I doubt she has seen any of this ever. At the store nearest us they are selling some kind of strange meat that is the same colour as the ground below my feet, winkled and I can smell an awful stench coming from it. The next one along is selling rifles and has boxes of bullets set up on the table top and the only other store opening is selling caned stuff and bottled drinks. But then something catches my eyes and I feel my heart start to be so fast it my jump out of my chest at the very sight of it, at the end of the other market one of those metal men walks into the market with a group of three children following it. I look back at Lynne and I see in her eyes that she's just as terrified as I am but no one else seems to notice the machine apart from the children who want to play with it, everyone else on gives it a quick glance and then goes back to what they are doing like it's not a threat at all. How can they ignore it like that don't they know it's dangerous?

"Lynne" I say backing away but I end up backing into someone, in an instant I forget the danger the metal man poses as I spin round and bow my head. "I'm so sorry"

"It's ok kid, don't worry about it" A familiar voice says, I look up and come face to face with the sheriff. "You two look like you've seen a ghost, what's wrong?"

"Aren't you worried about that metal man they are dangerous?" Lynne asks in reply not taking her eyes off of the metal man.

"Relax as long as you behave around them they won't harm you" The sheriff answers shaking its head. "The ones in the towns do anyway, outside in the wasteland then they will attack you on sight though"

"So that things not going to start shooting at us?" I ask looking at the machine which now is letting the children climb all over it and hasn't even so much as scratched them.

"No unless you damage it or hurt someone you have my word it won't hurt you" The sheriff says as all, three of us watch the metal man peaceful allows the children to climb all over it. "You…"

A loud bang suddenly deafens me and leaves my ears ringing and my world has turned black as if it was night. I feel pain all over my back and the weight keeping me pined to the ground, I know I am on the ground because I feel my face pressed into dirt and taste it in my mouth. I can't see anything but darkness, I can't hear anything but ringing in my ears and I have no idea what just happened. All I know is that there is something very warm by my feet and there are shafts of light starting to appear all around me, they are growing in number and size until I can't see the darkness any more. What I do see I a bright light that hurts my eyes, I feel something roll me over onto my back and the bright light forces me to have to blink over and over again until the pain goes away and I can start to make out objects around me. the first thing I see is Lynne looking down on me with a worried look in her eyes and her lips moving but all I hear is a faint mumbling sound, behind her the sky is filled with smoke. I sit up but if Lynne hadn't have moved her arms to wrap around my I would have fallen back down, as soon as my I raised my head an overwhelming dizziness hit me. I look down to my feet and see a bit of blood seeping from a cut on my left leg and the source of the heat and darkness, the building I was stood by looks like it has exploded rubble and fire fills the street and where the building once stood is a burning ruin collapsed on itself.

"Yoshika" I hear Lynne say but her voice is so low and is being overwhelmed by the popping sounds that happen one after the other in rapid succession. "Yoshika can you hear me?"

"Lynne what happening?" I ask and suddenly my hearing returns and those popping sounds become clearer, they aren't popping sounds, they are gunshots.

* * *

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

"What's happening?" I ask as both the sheriff's brother and I jump to our feet at the sound of an explosion. Outside the sky fills with smoke and the source is all too clear as we both watch a burning building collapses on itself, automatic fire soon replaces the explosion as guns fire from multiple directions.

"The towns under attack by raiders" The sheriff's brother answers readying his shout gun, I hear movement behind the bar and see his mother readying a large revolver with a sight attached on top of it and a customer draw a pistol while the other run for cover. "Take cover here I need to go find my brother and help in the defence town"

"I need to find my friends" I say following him to the door.

"Fine but this town will be a warzone so be careful" He replies opening the door and as the door opens the sound of gunfire becomes nearly deafening, suddenly it doesn't seem like a good idea but I'm their leader and must find them.

"Don't worry I've been in warzones before" I tell him as we step onto the street.

"Good luck out here" He says with a small nervous nod, I'm just as nervous being on the battlefield without a weapon but it's my duty to find them.

"You to" I reply returning his nod before we run off down the street in opposite directions.

I run down the street and the gunfire continues without a break, the sky grows darker and darker as the smoke from more and more fires covers the town in a thick black cloud. I run back to where I we all split up, why did I order us to split up? I should have kept us tighter in case something like this happened, I should have never given that order and now we are scattered and in danger because of my mistake. I run down the street as the smoke turns the day into night and the gunfire starts to get closer, I start to hear screaming that's only silenced seconds later by a loud bang of a gunshot. This town is going to hell, everything is starting to burn and its people are being slaughtered. It was a mistake to come here we should have just walked around and found the next settlement. I don't know how much time we have until this town falls but I do know that the sheriff and his brother won't be able to defend this town for long against the amount of gunfire I hear, even if the other citizens join them I really doubt that this town will be able to hold out. I reach the spot where we all split up but I can't see anyone, I could use my magic to find them but while I do so it will leave me open to attack. I need to find cover and find them, where can I hide. An alley, there's a small alley that I'm sure no one will spot me in if I search for them there.

I quickly run into the ally but also nearly into a blade. I only just see it in time slicing through the air towards me in time to duck under it, the blade cuts through the air slicing off several hairs from my head and smashing through a piece of timber sending splitters of wood in every direction. I look up from where I I'm crouched down and look into the eyes of evil. I look into a pair of deep red eyes on a tanned dirty face that is covered in scares and red paint the colour of blood, at least I think and hope its red paint and not blood. He is wearing a helmet that covers is black hair so only a few strands hang down over his forehead, he is topless, his torso is nothing but muscle and a scare cuts across it in three straight lines like some animal has clawed him in the past. He's wearing blue trousers and his feet are bare although the dirt covering his feet hides all of his skin. I look up at him just as he raises the a large machete above his head and brings it down towards me, I dive and roll out of the way less than a second before the blade digs into the ground where I just was. I stand up taking up a stance I learned in basic training and watch as he digs his weapon out of the ground, I watch my assailant as he also takes up position and ready to strike and fight me. We stare into each other's eyes and the tension in the air is so thick my opponent could cut it with machete, all is silent as all I can focus on is my opponent. The raging battle for the town is hardly on my mind as we stare off waiting to see who will make the first move.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask him as the stare off continues with never one of us making a move. "I haven't done anything to you so why attack me?"

"Because I can" He replies with a smirk right before he charges me and swings his machete at me, I roll under his swing and we both turn around to face each other again. "This is how the world works girl, take what you want, kill who you want but for you this part sounds very tempting and fuck who we want. I feel like I want to be sick when the idea of sleeping with him enters my mind, never in a million years will I ever even think about sleeping with an evil man like him. "So we can do this the easy way or the hard way girl, your choice"

"I'm not going to let you live that way" I tell him fighting back the urge I still have to be sick. "I will stop you from living a life like that"

"Fine by me" he replies charging me again but this time as he swings I side step away from his blade and strike back, my fist connects with his stomach and he drops to his knees winded. "You…Bitch"

"I told you I will stop you" I say as he gets to his feet still panting for the breath I punched out of his lungs.

"You are dead meat!" He yells as he attacks once again, I do the same as last time only know he tries to punch me before I can, his fist is fast but my reactions are faster. I easily dodge his punch instead kick him in the back of the knee, again he falls down to his knees but he's quickly back up on his feet limping from my attack. "I will kill you!"

He throws his machete at me this time forcing me to duck underneath it, his weapon glides harmlessly over my head and bounces of a wall behind me. It lands on the ground not that far behind me with a light thud, I stand back up ready to fight but before I know it his body slams into mine tackling me to the ground. I land hard on the ground with him on top of me, he moves quickly straddling me before he wraps his arms around my throat. I try to claw at his arms chocking my but he pins my right hand with one of his hands as he continues to chock me with the other. My lungs burn for air as his hand warps tighter and tight around my neck, my vision starts to black as I try to break free and breathe. My only free hand desperately tries to free my throat but nothing it does seems to work, I'm trapped and going to die. Unless I stop my attempt to free myself and focus all my efforts into finding it and not blacking out which would spell certain death for me. Where is it? I know it's around here somewhere. Ah, here it is. My hand wraps around its wooden handle and with all my remaining strength I swing it at him, my attackers own machete slices through the air and through his throat. He falls back instantly freeing my throat so I and breath but not before his blood drenches me turning my face as red as his and coving my neck and the top of my chest in his warm deep red blood.

I scream pushing his dead body off me and backing away from his corpse. I killed him. I killed a living person. I have never killed anyone in my life yet I was easily able to slice open his throat and let his life bleed out of his body. I stare at his body and then to the machete I used to end his life, its blade is covered I blood and I throw it away in disgust. I joined the witches to save lives not take them, I look at my hands which are now covered in the warm red blood of my first kill and loss it. I throw up empty the contents of my stomach as the sight, smell and blood of my first kill really hits me. I throw up again and again until my stomach is empty but I still feel sick and I now that if I eat or drink anything I will only throw it back up again. As I sit her gaging over a pool of my own sick I feel someone's hands on my shoulders, I turn my head to see Trude and Erica looking at me with worried eyes and alarm when they see I'm covered in the blood of my kill.

"Minna are you ok you don't look so good?" Trude ask holding my shoulders.

"I'm fine" I say as I slowly start to wipe this man's blood of my face with my sleeve. "It's not my blood"

"Hartmann give me a hand here" Trude says turning to Erica and together they both help me to my feet. "Come on Minna we are going to the Major you are clearly in shock"

"Is Mio and the others ok?" I ask as they lead me away from the corpse I created.

"The Major, Shirley and Lucchini have taken cover with some locals in an old store and are holding them off just fine for now" Trude answer but I have a feeling she's hiding something from me, the others she never mentioned the others.

"What about the others?" I ask wanting to know what I dragged every into with my decisions to come here and then to split up.

"I don't know I haven't seen them since we split up" Trude tells me and my heart drops, half of my girls are missing because I ordered us to split up.

* * *

**Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen P.O.V**

* * *

"Sanya stay close" I tell her as I grab her hand and lead her into a nearby store where hopefully we can ride out this attack, that little brat who tried to steal my Sanya also follows holding onto to Sanya's ever hand. The sight of her holding onto Sanya's hand really annoys me to the point that I want to through her out into the street to die by the hail of bullets now hitting the walls of building we are hiding in, I don't know why but whenever someone other than me is touching her I always get mad like this. "As long as we are quiet we should be safe in here"

"We you keep my safe?" That little brat ask as she gets worse and actually hugs Sanya's arms, I bite my sleeve to stop myself from yell at her like I promised, it should be me hugging Sanya not her.

Sanya smile brightly and beautifully at the girl again making me made and jealous as I watch bighting through my leave and into my arm so hard it bleeds, Sanya's smiles are mine and mine alone. "Don't worry" Sanya sweetly tells the girl. "Both Eila and I will keep you safe"

"As long as you let go of her!" I want to yell at her but that would upset Sanya and give away our hiding spot, instead I take a deep breath and calmly say. "Just be quiet and they will leave us alone"

"Someone's coming" Sanya says as footsteps run towards us and someone dives into the room with us, It'…

"Perrine what are you doing here?" I ask staring in disbelief as I watch Perrine stand up.

"Same as you hiding from those brutes shooting at us" Perrine says as her eyes look down at the little brat. "Who are you sweetie?"

"None of your business hag" The little brat replies and I start to think this kid may not be that bad as I start to laugh.

"Who are you calling a hag?" Perrine yells back before she turns to me. "Stop laughing it's not funny!"

"We have to be quiet" Sanya tells us acting out of character, normally she would just stay quiet and let us argue. "They could hear you"

* * *

**Lynette Bishop "Lynne" P.O.V**

* * *

"Yoshika come on we need to run" I tell here as I start to lead her away from the sheriff's dead body, he died by a bullet through his chest while Yoshika and I were digging someone out of the same rubble that buried Yoshika. Yoshika tried to heal him but there was nothing she could do, he dies and now we need to run because I can hear the people who caused the destruction around us closing in. "There's nothing more we can do we have to run before they catch up"

"But I…" Yoshika starts to complain but I continue to drag her away, I hate doing this because Yoshika's desire to save everyone is one of the best things about her but I have to or we will both die.

"He's dead Yoshika and we will be too unless we get out of her" I say cutting her off, she gets the message though and starts to run with me no longer resisting. I lead us away from them but into more danger, I only notice it when it's too late.

"Lynne!" I hear Yoshika call out in alarm as some yanks me by my braided hair causing me to yell out in pain as I slam into someone. I don't get a chance to look around as the cold feeling of a knife blade pressing against my throat paralysing me with fear. I look over to Yoshika and see that she's in the same position as me with knife held to her throat by someone else.

"Which one of these two did you say it was?" I hear the man holding me ask in a deep scary voice that vibrates through my body.

"This one" The person holding Yoshika replies patting her stomach with his large hand.

"What do you think we should do with this one?" Another voice from behind me asks and I know he means what my fate will be.

"We only need to take her with us" The man holding me asks shoving e to the ground. "This one" He continues stopping on my back causing yet another cry of pain to leave my mouth. I turn my head around to look up at him but see something that makes me wish I never looked back, in his hand is a large rock that looks heavy and the way it's raised means only one thing. He's going to hit me with it and end my life. I'm shaking now in fear as I watch the rock and hear them laugh and joke about how scared I am. "This we don't need" The next thing I feel is a sudden and blinding pain in the back of my head, I feel blood start to cover the back of my head and I see the people walk off with Yoshika as I black out hearing them say one last thing. "I think the boss is going to like what we found here"


	6. Crossing Paths Part 1

**Strike Witches Universe**

**Ruins of the 501st Joint Fighter Wings Base**

**Hanna-Justina Marseille P.O.V**

* * *

"Made any progress?" I ask stepping into the ruined hanger where Ursula has been working tirelessly around the clock search for clues as to what happened to her sister.

"No" She replies not looking up or stopping from what she is doing.

"You should take a break you've been working for nearly twenty four hours straight" I tell her worrying for her wellbeing, this is where the Hartman twins are different, well Erica would take any opportunity to take a break Ursula would just keep working until she collapses of exhaustion. "You will work yourself into an early grave if you don't stop"

"I can't stop right now" Ursula says dropping a clip board she was holding. "I haven't found anything yet" She turns to me with tears in her eyes. "I… I need to find something before I rest… I need to at least find one clue ever wise sis will be…" I pull her into a hug as she starts to cry, I know she's doing this for Erica and I want to get her back to but I still need to stop her, if I don't then she will work herself to death and we will never find that Neuroi or the 501st. "I need to…"

"It's ok Ursula" I tell her as she cries into my shoulder. "We will find them and get them back, you need to rest and maybe with a refreshed mind you can find that clue"

"Ok" Ursula sighs as she pulls away and I see her eyes are red with big bags underneath, it doesn't look like she's slept at all since she heard the news that her sisters missing. "I'll go take a nap"

* * *

**Fallout Universe**

**Edgetown**

**Doctors Office**

**Perrine H. Clostermann P.O.V**

* * *

"Is she going to be ok?" Minna asks the town doctor as her finishes examining Lynne.

Lynne is laying their perfectly still and her chest slowly raises and falls, it would be easy to think she was just fast asleep but the white bandage wrapped around her head says otherwise. I was the one that found Lynne, she was laying in the middle of the street with a dent in the back of her head, blood seeping from the wound dying her hair red and a large rock right next to her body. At first I thought she was dead and when Eila caught up with me she instantly covered Sanya's eyes thinking she's dead like I did and to spare Sanya from seeing the sight. I just stared at her body hoping that what I was seeing wasn't really and I'll wake up in my bed back in Britannia but, after all I've seen I know that this is real, the smell of blood mixed with the scent of soap Lynne always wears tells me so, the look on Eila's face and that she's covering Sanya's eye's tells me so, the sadness I feel at the sight tells me so and the way my heart stops and I want to throw up at the sight tells me this is real and Lynne's dead. I was about to run, about to run and tell Commander Minna but then I hear Lynne moan, it was quiet and I barely heard it but it was undeniably coming from Lynne. I look at her a see her hand move ever so slightly.

"Go find someone to help" I tell the others as I move to Lynne's side and check her pulse just to make sure what I saw and heard was real, I find a weak pulse on her neck and now I know for sure she is alive. I roll her over and cradle her head in my lap being careful not to make her injury worse, she's so weak and barely alive but at least she is alive. "Hold on Lynne we are going to get you so help"

"Yo...shika" Lynne moans as I hold her. "Ta…k…en"

Lynne losses consciousness after uttering those words and Minna arrives seconds later with everyone else right behind her. Minna has Barkhorn carry Lynne straight to the doctor's office she passed on the way here and after a ten minute's Minna finally asks. "Is she going to be ok?"

"Unfortunately it's fifty-fifty" The doctor replies making my heart sink. "Her head wound caused a lot of damage and I don't think she'll make it unless she wakes up by tomorrow"

"Isn't their anything you can do?" I ask on the verge of tears hoping that Lynne will make it.

"I can only make her comfortable" The doctor tells me as he gets ready to leave the room. "You may want to say your goodbyes" The doctor says as he leaves. "Unless she wakes up soon the odds of her surviving are very low" With that the doctor leaves the room leaving us alone with Lynne to say are goodbyes.

"We need to find Yoshika it's the only way to save Lynne" Minna tells everyone. "Sakamoto and Shirley are looking for tracks right now and hopefully they couldn't have taken her faraway"

"We're going to need weapons though if we are going up against those raiders again" Eila points out.

"What about the guns those raiders had" Erica suggests and everyone stares at her surprised that she has got an idea. "The one's that died dropped their weapons"

"Ok that solves our lack of weapons problem now we just need to find them" Minna finally says after a moment of shocked silence that Erica had a good idea. "Lucchini stay here and watch Lynne, Eila, Sanya stay here too in case the towns attacked again everyone else come with me we need to get those gun and start looking for Yoshika"

* * *

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

"If you need guns I've got plenty, ammo too" The sheriff's mother says as we exit the doctor's office and step onto the blood stained streets.

"Why would you give us guns?" I ask since it's not everyday someone office to arm you, at least for free.

"Because I know you are going after that girl they took and that means you're going to have to attack their main camp" The women tells me. "The way I see it you rescue your friend most likely destroying that camp in the progress which frees the town from their reign of terror" Now I'm starting to understand why she wants to arm us. "So you get your friend back, the town becomes safer and those raiders pay for their crimes. It's a win-win situation for us all"

"Ok we'll take your guns" I reply seeing the benefit from this arrangement for her and happy she is not trying to force us into something shady. "Do you know where their camp is?"

"Yes" The women answers. "Its north of her at the edge of that mountain" The women says pointing to a mountain on the horizon. "It's a fortress though" I gulp hearing that but I have to think like Mio because she's right there's nothing a witch can't do. "A wall topped with barbed wire surrounds the camp, there's only one entrance with a watch tower ever side and there's watch towers coving every inch of the fence making it hard to sneak up on" It sounds hard but nothing we can't handle. "There are a lot of raiders that are very well armed and guard dogs inside but their leader is there and he's someone you don't want to mess with"

"Who is he?" I ask not liking the sound of this.

"Benny the Reaper"

* * *

**Raider Fort**

**Jail Cell**

**Yoshika Miyafuji P.O.V**

* * *

I wake up on a cold concrete floor in a pool of water. I slowly sit up and look around, I'm in a jail cell, thick metal bars line on wall and the other three are cold hard concrete with no windows. It's very dark in here and the only light is coming from a flickering light bulb just outside of my cell. I don't know where I am only that I am with those raider who attacked the town and hit Lynne with that rock, I hope Lynne is ok and they only knocked her out. They put a bag over my head when they took me so I couldn't see where I was going, my hands were tied behind my back and my ankles bound together so tight I couldn't escape. I could do nothing but wait as they carried me away and dumped me in this cell. I really hope Lynne is ok, I saw the rock hit her head so hard that the rock broke apart and afterwards Lynne just laid there motionless. But fear for myself overcomes my worry for Lynne as I hear a door creek open and several pairs of footsteps getting closer to me dragging something with them. Three men and a girl stop in front of my cell and stare at me, the men with interest the girl with fear. The man in the middle seems to be their leader judging by the way the other two look at him, he is a giant far taller than the other two and has the biggest muscles I have ever seen. He has long black hair filled with dirt and grease, dark green that reminds me of the eyes of reptiles and tanned skin covered with dirt and sand. He's wearing some sort of metal suit with spiked shoulders that covers and has something that looks like a tommy gun Shirley once showed me but different, this one has wires and red cans inside the drum which Shirley's gun didn't have. The two men behind him are wearing raged clothes and each are armed with some kind of rifle slung over their shoulders, the girl they have is also wearing rages but her hands are bound behind her back and she is being help by her short blond hair by one of the men stopping her from running.

"You girl I hear you have a power that allows you to heal any wound" The man says in a deep terrifying voice that sends a chill down my spine, I just nod my head in response as I try to back away from tis man only to bump into the clod concrete wall of my cell. "Well I want to see it" He opens the door to my cell and pushes the girl forward, I'm left powerless as I watch him draw a knife and stab the girl in the side causing blood to come out of her mouth. The girl falls to the ground and lands face down on the floor, a pool of blood rapidly starts to form around the girl's body and the man now walks towards me with the knife. A press myself against the wall hopping to fall through it somehow and escape as he get closer fearing that he's about to kill me but he doesn't, instead he cuts the ropes binding my wrists and ankles. "Heal her, show me your power and you might get to live a little younger girl" I do what he says and run over to the girl, I start to heal the girls wound and I hear the men gasp as my familiar appears. Thankfully I am able to save the girl and I watch her knife wound stop bleeding and slowly start to close you, I finish healing her and sigh in relief as I stop working but before I can rest the large man grabs the top of my hair and pulls me up until the tip of my toes barely touch the ground. "Good girl I see my men were right about you" As he says that he aims his weapon and to my horror fires at the girl, I stare paralysed by fear and shock as a red beam hits the girl turning her to ash. "Come with me you have work to do"

* * *

**In the Wasteland**

**Twenty Minutes Later**

**Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke P.O.V**

* * *

"I see their camp up ahead" Shirley says she points to a wall in the distance with a watch tower looking over it just like the sheriff's mother said.

"Minna what's the plan? Trude asks as she and Mio walk up beside me. "If Yoshika's in there we need to get in and get her out before they hurt her" I understands Trude's worry as she is probable thinking it could be Chris in there since Yoshika looks so much like Trude's little sister.

"It too open a flat to catch them by surprise" Mio points out as I look across the flat plans between us and that fort, to make things worse there's a river we must cross and there steep hills around that river look hard to climb but… Yes that could work.

"I have an idea Major take Perrine and Erica and hide behind that hill on the other side of the river" I tell them pointing to the hill. "Shirley, Trude you come with me, we are going to lead them into the river. Once there Perrine electrify the water and then everyone will open fire catching them in a cross fire and by surprise"

"That could work" Mio says thinking over my plan. "We will have surprise and the terrain to our advantage"

"Major get your team into position everyone else follow me" I order as I start to walk towards the fort.

We walk towards the fort not trying to hide our presence hopping to be spotted. The sun is high in the sky above us and it feels like we are in one of those Liberian cowboy films, we all hold our guns ready to fire at any threat. The sheriff's mother gave us all Hunting Rifles and let us take as much ammunition as possible, before we left we fired a few practice shots and quickly mastered the rifle finding it accurate but the bolt action makes it slow at firing. We walk closer and closer to the fort but ever they didn't spot us or they alerted the fort quietly because I don't hear an alarm and no one fires a shot at us. We take up a position on a small mound of dirt and take aim at the nearest watch tower, it's too far away to see if we are aiming at someone but I know we will get someone's attention by firing into the tower.

"I don't think they noticed us" Shirley says as we take aim.

"Ok fire three rounds into the tower then wait for them to react" I tell them as I rest my fingers on the trigger of my rifle. "Fire!" I shout again hoping to get someone's attention in the fort just before I fire a bullet into the watch tower. I fire two more rounds and Trude and Shirley fire their three rounds into the watch tower, one of us must have hit a lamp or something because seconds later the tower explodes into a ball fire become a giant torch. "Hold fire"

"Well I think we got their attention" Shirley says as angry and startled shouts start to echo through the air.

"Get ready to pull back to the river" I tell them as the shouting gets louder. "As soon as we see them leave the fort we fire the last two bullets in our magazines and then retreat"

"They are coming from the left" Trude calls out, I turn around to see a group of ten no twelve topless men running out onto the plans outside of the fort.

"Open fire" I quickly order taking aim and firing, my bullet hits one of the men in the chest knocking him to the ground. My bullet could have done much damage as that man I shot just gets back up bleeding heavily but still able to fight, I fire again but this time my bullet hit him in the forehead, this time when he goes down he doesn't get back up. "Start pulling back to the river, we'll take it in turns covering each other"

* * *

**Five Minutes Later**

**Mio Sakamoto P.O.V**

* * *

"Get ready I see them coming" I tell Perrine and Erica as I watch Minna's team make a fighting retreat towards the river and switch the safety off of my Hunting Rifle. They are fighting their way back to us, I see them move from cover to cover firing into a large mob casing after them and occasional dodging shots from that mob. I watch as they run across the river and duck behind rocks on the over bank as the raider mob storms into the river. "Perrine now!"

"Tonnerre!" Perrine yells jumping to her feet and pointing her finger at the river, a bolt of lightning leaves her fingertip and lands in the river right in the middle of the raider mob. The plan works, the water lights up as it becomes alive with electricity killing most of the raiders within seconds of our ambush and the other are now caught in a cross fire between mine and Minna's team.

"That's enough Perrine save your strength and start firing" I tell her as all the raiders caught in the electric attack fall lifelessly into the river, their bodies slowly start to float downstream with the current. You start fire too Erica we need to defeat them if we want to rescue Yoshika and then return in time to save Lynne"

"Yes ma'am" they both reply as I take aim at the nearest raider.

I fire and my bullet slices through the raider's throat causing blood to spray out like water on a fountain painting the raider stood next to him with a dark red coat of blood. The raiders just stand there stunned as two more fall dead and another four go down wounded, it isn't most of them are ever dead or dying that they finally do start to return fire. Bullets start to land all around us but thankfully none of them land anywhere close to us and one by one the raids are picked off. By the time it's over the river runs red with blood and bodies litter the ground, when it's over there's nothing but silence, a silence that's almost too quiet to be really as if the entire world has just stomped and that we are the only living people on the planet. We just stand there staring at the death we caused in silence, a silence that's only broken by the sound of Minna, Barkhorn and Shirley jumping from rock to rock as they again cross the river to re-join us being careful not to fall into the blood red water. They re-join us as we stare at the death and bloody river still not moving or making a sound, it isn't until Minna speaks at the silence and the trance everyone is in upon seeing the gory scene below is finally broken.

"We should get moving and attack before they realise these guys aren't coming back" Minna tells us staying on task and unaffected by the death we just cause and the blood we just spilled, it isn't like Minna and I don't like it. "Everyone follow my lead I'll explain the plan on the way"

* * *

**Edgetown**

**Doctors Office**

**Francesca Lucchini P.O.V**

* * *

"Yoshika" Lynne moans in-between pants as her condition gets worse and worse each passing second, her temperature has sky rocketed and her body is now covered in a layer of sweat. The doctor came back in to see what he can do but he doesn't have the medicine to help Lynne so he just gave her an extra blanket hoping the warmth would break her fever. Then he left me alone with her so I'm doing what I can to help Lynne by keeping the clothe over her forehead damp and holding her hand as she sweats and moans out Yoshika's name over and over again. It must have been terrible for Lynne watching Yoshika being dragged away by those raiders, a girl she is extremely obviously fallen head over heels for being taken away by those bad men. Yoshika must feel worse though watching the girl that's the love of her life having her head smashed by a rock, now they are separated by those bad men but hopefully the other will save Yoshika in time so it isn't death that separates them. "Yoshika"

"It's ok Lynne Shirley will get her back she promised me and she has never broken a promise to me ever" I softly tell Lynne hoping that somehow she will hear my words and get better. "Just hang on Lynne, please just hang on until they return with Yoshika" I feel tears run down my cheeks as I fear losing Lynne for good. Lynne's been so nice to me from the minute we met, she would make me candy, sneak me extra food and always hear my problems when Shirley was too busy with whatever piece of machinery or engine she was working on at the time. I don't want to loss Lynne, sweet innocent Lynne I don't want to lose her, to have to bury her, morn her or have to help Yoshika after that, I don't want any of that I just want Lynne back. "Just please… Hang on… It's just a little longer… They will be back soon with Yoshika… They will make everything better… Just hang on Lynne"

* * *

**Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen P.O.V**

* * *

"You can go take a nap if you want" I say to Sanya, sweet, innocent, beautiful Sanya who's struggling to stay awake. Even when her eyes are staring to stay open and her head keeps dipping her beauty is unrivalled. "I can keep watch by myself and wake you if I see any trouble coming"

"Ok" Sanya replies with a cute little yawn.

She sets her weapon to her side the does something that makes my heart skip a beat, she leans closer to me and rests her head on my shoulder before quickly falling into a deep sleep. Poor little Sanya, she isn't used to sleeping and night a being awake during the day and its starting to take its toll on her beautiful fragile body, a body so warm and soft but at the same time full of enough strength to protect everyone single handily at night. A body that I want, a body that I need and a body that I really wish to have all to myself. I lean back against the side of the house we are sat against enjoying this feeling, a feeling of warmth that radiates from Sanya and warms my heart like nothing else can. I really want to be more than a friend to my beautiful little Sanya but I can't, every time I tried I feel like my heart will burst from my chest because of how fast it beats whenever Sanya is near and my tong gets so tied I sometimes worry that it will never get untied. I really want to have Sanya as my girlfriend and maybe my wife but how can I? How can I make that happen when I can't even confess my feeling to the love of my life? I love Sanya, I love her with all my heart but how can I tell her that I love her with all my heart and would gladly sacrifice my life in order to save hers.

"Sleep tight Sanya" I whisper as I stare into beauty itself, into my Sanya's cute little face. "I love you" I whisper to quiet for her to hear, I can say it now but not when I want to. Why can't I say it to her when she is wide awake listening to what I'm saying? "Sweet dreams beautiful"

* * *

**Raider Fort**

**Gertrud Barkhorn "Trude" P.O.V**

* * *

"It's clear I can't see anyone" I call back as Shirley and I entre to fort looking around for any sign of the enemy.

The place looks deserted there's not a soul I sight, there is evidence of people being here recently though, a burning fire, meat cooking over an oil drum, chairs knocked over and enough junk and litter laying around to make this place look like Erica's room. This place looks more like a slum then a fort and that's not just because of how it resembles the room of my roommate Erica Hartmann who still call herself a solider of Karlsland even with her sloppy, lazy and messy attitude. I swear if I can get Erica to straighten up and clean her room she could be the face of the Karlsland army displayed on every poster. But every time I've tired that she just annoys me until I snap and yell at her before storm off. But back to the fort, like I was saying it's just like Erica's room with all the litter and junk laying around as well as being deserted. Hopefully that means that we took care of them all at the river and their not lurking around the corner waiting to ambush us. We walk deeper into the place still not seeing anyone but I can tell somethings not right, it's quiet, too quiet and I can shake this feeling deep within my gut that something is wrong here.

The sound of glass breaking under someone's foot is all it takes, all it takes is the sound of that one piece of glass breaking for the silence to violently shatter and all hell to break loss. Within seconds of hearing that glass break bullets start to impact the ground and wall all around us, the raids attack yelling like berserkers and shouting swear words, insults and other words I've never heard before in my life and I have no idea what most of them mean. We all duck for cover as bullets continue to rain down around us, most of the fire is coming from a large concrete building dug into the side of the mounting, I can see flashes from their weapons firing from every window and door as small groups appear from the rundown buildings firing all over the place. Luckily their aim is terrible and their bullets ever hit the walls above us or the ground in front of us. There are three groups of them in total firing at us, the main one in that concert building and another two flanking ever side of us trying to surround us all. We return fire and the two of their groups trying to flank us fall back as several of them go down dead.

"Spread out and return fire!" Minna orders of the sounds of battle. "Try to keep moving forward, don't let them pin you down!"

"Yes ma'am" We all reply as we start to move to new cover dodging wildly flying bullets fired inaccurately at us.

I duck behind a wooden shake and take aim, my body barely sticks out from behind the wall as I raise my gun and find a target. I take aim at a raider firing a revolver while charging straight towards me, I fire and my bullet goes straight through his right eye causing brain matter and blood to explode through the large exit wound in the back of his head. He drops to the ground but right behind him another smaller raider is hurtling towards me, he's covered in in the blood and brains of the first raider and running straight at me with an axe raised high above his head. I don't have time to pull back the bolt on my rifle chambering another round, I don't have time move out of his way or even dodge his incoming attack. All I have time to do is raise my gun to block the axe he is swing down towards me. It works, my rifle stops his axe but is nearly split in half by the blade of his axe. The only reason way my rifle is even in one piece right now is because the metal components of the gun stopping the axe blade from slicing clean through my weapon.

As he pulls his axe back and steps back to attack again I see my moment to strike, I step towards the raider and swing my rifle using as a club to defeat my opponent. My rifle hits the raider on the side of his and I see his teeth fly out of his mouth, blood following right behind those teeth and I hear his jaw snap. The raid falls to his knees crying out in agony but because of his broken jaw they sound mumbled, blood pours from his mouth as he looks up at me but in his eyes I do not see fear, I see rage and hatred burning dep within his soul. I hate that I have to do this but I must do it in order to save Yoshika. I raise my rifle over my head and bring it down onto him. My rifle hits him right on top of his head creaking his skull open with a sickly crunching sound and my final breaking in half along the cut his axe caused. The raider crumbles to the ground and soon is laying in a pool of blood, I don't have time to think about what I just did as bullets quickly start to rain down all around me once again. I run forward continuing the assault, I pick up the revolver up off the ground as I run but because of the amount off fire I am taking I can't retrieve the ammunition for it so I'm left with whatever is left in the gun. I duck behind some metal barrels and the first thing I do is check how much bullets are in the revolver. Two, there's only two bullets left in my new gun so I have to make both of them count.

* * *

**Yoshika Miyafuji P.O.V**

* * *

"You two go join the fight I'll keep an eye on the girl" The raider leader tells the tow guard that followed me as he dragged me out of my cell and into this room. "Your friend are dead you know, even if my men don't kill them I will so don't get any ideas of trying to escape"

"You don't know them" I say causing the giant man to glare at me, for a moment I want to take back what I said but I want let him scare me, the other are here now and they will save me no matter what he says or does. "They will save me"

"Stop dreaming girl this place is a fortress and I've killed hundreds of strong warriors in the past who were much stronger than your friends" He replies as he grabs me by the collar of my shirt and lifts me at least a two maybe three feet of the ground so we are eye level. I can barely breathe as his tight grip tightens around my collar and I hear my shirt start to tear. We look each other in the eyes and in his reptile like eyes I see pure evil and wickedness so powerful it sends shivers through out my body. "You…" He throws me to the ground and I land hard causing all the air to leave my lungs and pain to short through my body, I try to sit up but before I get even halfway his boot comes down onto my chest forcing me back down. "…Just need to accept that you are mine forever and to learn to obey my every command" He presses down even harder onto my chest crushing my ribs send more waves of pain through my body and causing me to yell out in pain. "The more you accept that the longer you will live and the less pain you will suffer"

"You won't… Ahh" I try to tell him but he applies more press onto my chest doubling the amount of pain I'm in and making it impossible to breathe.

"I won't what?" He angrily asks as he continues to press his foot painfully down onto my chest causing more cries of pain to escape from my lips. "Won't kill them? Keep you here with me? Beat them? While what is it girl?" The gun fire start to die down bit by bit until there's nothing but silence that's only broken by my cries of pain. "Sound like your friends are d…"

"Get off of her now!" An angry voice shouts from the door way, I turn my head and find the source of the shout. My vision is blurry with tears but I can still make out who it is by hearing her voice and seeing the grey blur of her uniform confirms it. It's Barkhorn, Captain Barkhorn is here to save me and she sounds really really mad.

"Hold on a second this shouldn't take long" The raider leader tells me as he thankfully takes his foot of off me and my pain starts to fade instantly, he steps towards Barkhorn creaking his knuckles ready for a fight. "You shouldn't have come here without a weapon, it wouldn't have saved you but that way you would have had a few more minutes of life"

"I don't need a weapon to take down scum like you" Barkhorn replies taking up a fight stance. "I just need my two fists"

"Take your best shot" The man says with a laugh. "I'll try to enjoy it but I doubt it will last long enough for me to have any fun"

"I'm going to make you pay for hurting her!" Barkhorn yells as she charges the man, she throws her fists aiming for the side of his head but the man dodges and slams his knee into Barkhorn's stomach. Barkhorn bends over and before she can recover the man brings both his fist down onto her back knocking her to the ground, he then goes to stomp on her but luckily Barkhorn rolls out of the way and she quickly gets back on her feet. "Not bad but you are still going to pay"

"I really don't think that will happen" The man replies side stepping to avoid another one of her fists before kicking the back of her heels once again sending Barkhorn to the floor but a gain she's back on her feet. "Unless you decide to get serous I really don't think you will live much longer" Barkhorn throw another punch but this time the man catches her wrist after he dodges and laughs. "Is that the best you can do?" That was his mistake, Barkhorn quickly grips his wrists while summoning her familiar making the man looks stunned. "What the…"

Before he can finish Barkhorn throws him across the room and when her lands I have to cover my ears to block out the loud creak as his legs break. "No that's the best I can do" Barkhorn tells him as she draws a revolver and takes aim. "Now it is payback time" I close my eyes as I her two shouts and I know Barkhorn hit him even without looking, Barkhorn always hits her mark and the man's gone quiet. "Yoshika" I feel a hand on my shoulder and open my eyes to find Barkhorn's face close to my own. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine I think all I have is bruises at the most" I tell her but she still looks worried.

"Are you sure?" She asks getting that look in her eye that she gets whenever she is thinking I am her sister Chris. "I heard you screaming are you sure you are ok?"

"Yes really I'm fine" I tell her again but she still looks worried and must be in her over protective mode, something I've only seen once when her sister visited the base and Lucchini tried to grope her.

"Trude she's fine stop smothering her" Erica says as she enters the room, both Barkhorn and I turn to see her running towards us. She jumps at Barkhorn hugging her tightly much to the annoyances of Barkhorn who looks like she wants to throw her friend like she throw that man. "And you really shouldn't run off like that worrying everyone"

"Hartmann get off of me" Barkhorn replies sounding angry once again. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop being so clingy"

"Sorry I thought you got over Han…" Erica begun to say but a quickly placed hand by Barkhorn over her mouth stops her.

"Don't" Is all Barkhorn tells her as she gets up and walks away, it's so strange, I saw pain in Barkhorn's eyes as she walked off and her voice then sounded lonely and hurt. I wonder what happened to make her like that after only a sentence from Erica, I hope they could tell me so I could help before someone is hurt like what happened over Chris.

* * *

**Dean Camron P.O.V**

* * *

"Keep your guard up" Alex says as we enter the raider fort.

"Looks like someone took care of the raiders for us" Nathan says as we step over several dead bodies still not seeing a living soul anywhere.

"That still doesn't mean we should drop our guard" Sam tells him as we move deeper into the fort. "The people that did this could still be around and they might not be friendly"

"Whoever did this must be good" Jayson comments as he looks around at all the dead bodies. "I only see dead raiders"

"Maybe they killed each other" Nathan says. "That would explain the missing bodies of any dead attacker"

"Maybe a Mutant did this" I suggest as we continue on.

"Possible" Alex concludes. "All of them could be right so we need to keep our guards up and be ready for anything"

"I see movement at the main building" Sam calls out and we all look to see a. "It's a girl"

"Don't shoot unless fired on first" Alex quickly orders. "Dean go talk to them while we cover you"

* * *

**Perrine H. Clostermann P.O.V**

* * *

"Commander I see people coming" I tell them as I run back into the building. "There are five of them in total and some flying ball is following them around"

"Are they raiders?" Major Sakamoto asks doing the sensible thing and making sure we don't fire on the innocent.

"I don't know they don't look like them" I answer. "They were all wearing suits of armour and carrying strange weapons"

"Ok get everyone into cover by the entrance" Minna tells Major Sakamoto. "I'll try to speak with them and everyone else is to only fire if they start shooting"


	7. Update

Sorry to say I won't be uploading any more, I don't have the time for it but if any one wants to continue one of my stories I can send you the files using DocX.


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